The Evangelion Odyssey
by amitakartok
Summary: There are times when you question everything you ever lived for. Mostly, these are due to losing something important. But sometimes, it happens when you gain something you didn't know you had. AU crossover.
1. Chapter 1

_Well, another project I've been working on. The basic idea of this fic came into my head in the summer of 2011 when I was strolling around the Spacebattles forums. Since the guys over at the Evangelion thread wasn't really receptive to it, I took this back to the metaphorical drawing board. Over time, I combined it with several other ideas until I've gotten to the point in August 2011 where I could discuss the idea with GeneralScrage who's writing a Halo/Battlezone/Mass Effect crossover titled 'The Opened Way'. He gave me some useful input (thanks, buddy) and resolved some disputed points in the canon. Warning: this story is going to be quite heavily AU._

_Someone's inevitably going to go "wrong section, this belongs in the crossovers section!" on this fic. Well, here's my answer: the other main verse of this fic is obscure enough that there's ONE fanfic of it on this site. One. And that's the only one I found on the internet yet._

_So as I said above, credit goes to Scrage for helping me put this verse together and the little-known but ridiculously awesome anime Hakaima Sadamitsu for inspiration. Anyway, on with the story._

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 01<br>FIRST/BLOOD**_  
><em>

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><p><strong>NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN, 312 KM EAST OF TOKYO<br>2015 AD**

It was a clear day. Despite the occasional cloud here and there, nothing impeded the sun's radiance. There was nothing to impede it from, anyway: as far as eye could see, there was nothing but ocean.

The slightly waving water was disturbed by a high-speed object shooting across it in a southeastern direction. That object turned out to be a vehicle about twenty meters of length, its surface smooth and aerodynamic as if it was an aircraft of some kind. Yet it was no aircraft but no ship either: if someone were to look under it, they would note the vehicle hovering about a meter above the surface, the blessings of civilian hovercraft technology from the new millenium.

Inside the vehicle, the interior was furnished like a downtown train. A row of seats sat under the windows on each side while handrails ran under the ceiling. The entire hovercraft was empty, save for one person sitting near one of the external doors, a heavily stuffed pack next to it signalling the figure was on a long-distance trip. Currently, the figure was listening to the automated announcer's droning.

"_...Japan, western shore. Chance of earthquake today: 32%. Chance of tsunami today: 6%. Japan, eastern shore. Chance of earthquake today: 87%. Chance of tsunami today: 75%..._"

The figure sighed. – "As usual..."

"_Attention, all passengers. This vehicle is... inbound... from... Iwaki, Japan... to... Tokyo-3, outer dock facilities. Estimated time of arrival... five... minutes. Please prepare your possessions for departure._" – the speakers announced, piecing the message together from pre-recorded phrases. Hearing this, the figure looked outside where several glistening spires could be seen on the horizon.

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><p>"<em>Attention. The Tokyo-3 Board of Directors has declared a Level 2 civil defense alert. As per emergency protocols, all phone lines have been suspended.<em>" – came the payphone's refusal at the teenager who rolled her eyes.

"Wonderful..." – she groaned as she put the phone back to where it should be. – "What am I going to do now?"

It started off simple, really. She received a letter from the one person she didn't expect to hear from again. A letter of just one word. Naturally, she was heavily tempted to just ignore it and let the old bastard rot where he was but was convinced otherwise by her caretakers and oldest friend. After all, it might be important. She wasn't really keen on finding out but yielded anyway, piecing the letter back together after her first reaction was tearing it to shreds.

So here she was, in the middle of this city. She never saw it before but heard about it in school often enough. Tokyo-3. The Jewel of Mankind. Project Atlantis Installation No.1. There were many names for it, not that she cared. Once the novelty wore off, all she cared about was giving a piece of her mind to her target and going back home.

There was one problem, however: the city was completely deserted. Not a single soul was around. How was she going to find who she was searching for?

"This city's supposed to have a population over a million. Where the heck is everyone?" – she murmured as her eyes wandered across the street. From the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something moving but as she turned to check, her vision was suddenly obscured by _something_. It was there for only a split second but she recognized one thing: a pair of crimson red eyes accusingly staring into her face before disappearing almost instantly.

Then her head was overcome by a searing wave of pain like nothing she ever felt before. She collapsed onto the pavement with a pained moan, clutching her temples as if her life depended on it. It was as if someone bashed her skull from inside with a skyscraper. Through the haze of pain, she thought she heard a whisper. _You do not belong here. Begone._ Another wave came, just a tad weaker than the first one.

"Who the devil are you?" – whispered the girl but received no answer. As the pain faded, she stood up and dusted herself off. _'What the heck was that?'_

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a distant explosion. – "That... didn't sound so good." – she remarked to herself. The source of the sound came somewhere from the north where the buildings grew sparse. Concluding that since there was nothing to do without her guide, she might as well take a look, the girl hefted her heavy bag and walked across the street, her stept echoing on the walls. '_What's this, a ghost city or something?_'

She got her answer as she arrived to a wide-open area that had no buildings and saw... _it_. A giant she had no idea exactly how tall, bone plates framing dark green skin. A skull-face with no discernible eyes turned slowly side to side, as if it's owner was looking for something.

The girl involuntarily took a step back as the skull looked straight at her for a moment... before it was distracted by explosions rippling across its back.

"_Ittai nanda? [What the hell?]_" – she swore in surprise as a trio of shadows swarmed out of the dust cloud behind the giant, firing blue projectiles at it. As they left the cloud, the newcomers turned out to be small tanks, their orange and black painting in sharp contrast with the gray buildings. _'Wait, tanks?'_ They didn't look like any tanks she ever saw before. While tanks were supposed to run on threads and generally make themselves a slow target, these ones were obviously equipped with hoverdrives as they nimbly danced left and right, one of them even launching itself five meters high to avoid colliding with an abandoned car. The giant just looked between them as if perplexed, making a half-hearted effort to step on one of the tanks which quickly strafed out from under the massive foot.

As she looked on, a sudden rumbling behind her grabbed her attention but before she could turn to look, a hovercraft whizzed past her at high speed. This looked more like a sci-fi fighter than a tank, sporting a plane-like fuselage and two short wings on either side of its tail which bore a turret-lookalike on the top. Two nozzles propelled the vehicle forward as it fired a pair of small yellow... somethings at the giant. Meanwhile, it weaved slightly to the sides, revealing those wings to actually be ailerons. As the giant noticed its arrival, the yellow tracers connected and the hovercraft's turret suddenly launched a salvo of missiles.

The giant didn't really react to the tanks' harassment but the missiles exploding against its skin seemed to trigger something as it reached out with its hand. Something glowed within the palm and a lance of light shot out, impaling one of the tanks. The giant simply tossed it aside as if it was a toy, straight at another tank. Barely a second before impact, the second tank's forward section seemingly exploded as the pilot ejected, shooting high into the sky. And not a moment too soon: the impact sent the mangled wrecks of both vehicles into the wall behind them where they exploded into a fireball on impact.

Then a terrible thought occurred to the girl: there were two tanks.

Only one ejection.

As she stared at the burning scrapheap, her legs buckled and she heaved. Luckily for her, she boarded the vehicle that ferried her into the city on an empty stomach, just to be safe. That came in quite useful at the moment as the shock-induced nausea couldn't take anything out of her.

Wiping her mouth, the white-faced girl took a moment to catch her breath before looking up...

...right as the giant's eyes flashed and the missile-armed hovercraft vanished in a powerful explosion whose shockwave pushed her off her footing. As she felt herself being stopped by a wall, she instinctively shielded her face with her arms. She half-expected the giant to finish her off but her expectations were derailed when she heard the low drone of a hoverdrive in front of her. Experimentally, she peeked out from between her arms.

It was a blue Renault Seiche A3, a post-Impact civilian hovercraft and one of the first of its kind; she saw an advertisement not too long ago showcasing it. Though truth to be told, it looked more like a racing vehicle: narrow body, a dart-shaped nose, a windshield more like a fighter plane's canopy, as well as the tail wings of that rocket-armed military hovercraft she just saw being vaporized (unlike that one's wings however, the Seiche's wings weren't ailerons but fixed-wing). Before she could react, the canopy opened up and the grinning visage of a purple-haired woman emerged. – "Sorry I'm late. Hop in!"

Deciding to ask questions later, the girl quickly hefted her bag and threw it into the rear seat before jumping in herself. As soon as she got seated, the canopy closed and the woman called over. – "Hang on!" – The Seiche's turbines roared as the craft launched into a rapid acceleration that pushed the girl into the seat. The giant saw the new prey and lashed out towards it but the woman responded with a quick twist of the controls that looked like it would send them into a wall... only for the Seiche to turn on its side and launch itself away from the building as the v-thrusters aimed at it fired at full throttle. This trick sent them right between the giant's legs who just looked down then all over, wondering where'd the shiny thing go.

Looking at the rapidly approaching concrete, the girl thought they would crash but the woman finished the flip, momentarily making them fly upside down before the stabilizers kicked in and the Seiche went back to hovering in the orientation it was supposed to be before quickly slipping into another street and out of sight.

As soon as they were safe, the woman called back to the rear seat. – "Sorry about that. I hope I didn't shook you up too much?"

The girl however was occupied with something else. – "W-w-w-w-w-what the hell was that thing?" – she stuttered as she pointed back to where they came from.

"Did it spook you?"

"'Spook me'? Oh no, it didn't spook me; I just come into this city in the ass end of nowhere and a giant monster is crawling around it? What the hell is this, a B-grade _kaiju_ movie?"

Her savior just laughed at it. – "I can see why you would think that! Anyway..." – she narrowed her eyes underneath her shades as she looked into the rearview mirror. – "Are you, by any chance, Shinji Ikari?"

"Um... yes?" – the girl replied suspiciously.

"Good, then you're the person I was looking for. Though to tell you the truth... with that haircut of yours, I thought you were a boy."

"You mean this?" – Shinji replied as she pulled a somewhat lewd picture of the woman out of her pocket. Not only was the older woman in a somewhat revealing top, there was also a cleanly visible arrow pointing at her cleavage along with a message asking for attention. – "Sorry, I don't swing that way." – she added deadpan.

"No, really." – the woman insisted. – "And with the way you dress... you're kind of a tomboy, aren't you?"

"I get that everywhere. By the way, who might you be?"

"Oh, sorry... Captain Misato Katsuragi, ISDF Special Agency NERV." – the woman introduced herself.

Shinji shrugged. – "Never heard of it."

"But you've heard about the AAN, right?"

"Pretty much." – It was impossible not to. Officially, the AAN or Alliance of Advanced Nations was founded in the nineties from the G8 nations. After the Impact Wars rendering the UN only a shadow of its former glory, the AAN took the helm and brokered the Valentine's Day Treaty, becoming the _de facto_ leaders of humanity. Many rogue nations like North Korea staunchly opposed the AAN's power, accusing them of conspiring at the establishment of the infamous 'New World Order'; these protests were nothing more than empty threats however, as the AAN controlled or had influence over 60% of the world's natural resources and over 80% of the planet's collective GDP. In short, there was no contest about who's the boss.

"Did you bring the security pass your father sent you?" – asked Misato.

Shinji dug into her pack and extracted a card wrapped in a crumpled and taped-together piece of paper. – "Here."

"Thanks." – Just one look at the letter's state was enough to confirm Misato's suspicions. – "You don't get along with your father, do you?"

"That's the understatement of the year." – came the deadpan reply.

"Same here." – Misato remarked cheerily but Shinji wasn't convinced.

"Oh? Did he threw you out right when you needed him the most, ignored you for years and then suddenly dragged you away into the middle of a warzone for who knows what? Did he?" – the girl shot back with venom and bitterness in her voice.

"Well...no." – the woman admitted, her cheeriness gone.

Shinji leaned back into the seat. – "There you go. I hate his guts, more than you would know. I'm not as naïve to think he called me back to apologize – which I wouldn't accept anyway –; he can go die in _yomi [underworld]_ for all I care."

"That's harsh."

"I don't care, the old bastard deserves it." – Shinji seethed. – "I just want to know what the hell does he want then I'll be on my way." – A few minutes of silence went by, ultimately broken by Shinji's suspicious voice. – "You said you were supposed to pick me up, right?"

"Yeah." – Misato replied, not understanding what the girl was getting at.

"...you're working for him, aren't you?" – came the piercing question.

Before Misato could answer however, a nearby building was blown into smithereens as their pursuer crashed through it. The woman swore and instinctively tried to evade, only to fly straight into the path of a quite large chunk of debris.

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><p>Shinji had no idea how long was she out but when she came to, she found herself lying on the pavement. Apparently, the force of the impact launched her out of the Seiche and onto the road. She was a bit bruised from it and a small trickle of blood was coming from beneath her hairline (as if the sore spot wasn't a giveaway already) but other than that, she was fine.<p>

As she focused her vision, she realized she was staring at the Seiche which was lying on its side. A purple blob behind the broken canopy signalled Misato was still inside, apparently out cold as well.

Shinji turned to her other side in preparation of standing up...

...and saw the giant staring at her from less than a hundred meters.

'_Crap!'_ She immediately sat up in fright. The giant must've noticed her as it started walking in her direction, prompting Shinji to back away on all fours until she was backed up against the Seiche. She half-expected the giant to be motion-sensitive but when it kept going even as she kept still, that theory fell down the drain. _'Shitshitshitshit... what do I do now?'_ she thought frantically as she sent a look at Misato's clearly unconscious form.

When the giant pointed its palm at her, Shinji had to resist the urge to close her eyes.

Which came in quite handy a moment later as a smoking projectile streaked over her head and bounced off the giant's face before detonating. The giant shrieked and back down, leaving a bewildered Shinji wondering just what the hell happened.

It was then that she heard the noise: a quiet whirring sound followed by a resounding _**THUD**_. It repeated in a rhythmical pattern, slightly increasing in volume after every thud which she recognized now as footsteps.

The footsteps of something _very_ heavy. And it was coming from behind her.

She decided it would be a better idea if she didn't stick her head above the Sieche to see what it was – curiosity killed the cat, after all. Her savior eventually passed her position, allowing her to see what it was.

It was an armored figure far taller than any human despite having the same general shape. Most of it was covered in bright orange painting except the backpack-like protusion which had diagonal yellow-black stripes, only broken by a large nuclear trefoil symbol in the middle. Beneath the trefoil was **ISDF Pr.E-00** stenciled in large black letters, the meaning of which escaped her. Despite the suit's bulkiness, it moved with an elegant, almost feline grace that simply screamed _dangerous_.

The giant regarded its enemy silently as something inside the armor clicked, followed by the entire suit rising about half a meter above the pavement with the telltale hum of a hoverdrive. Shinji was, to say the least, amazed. _'How the heck did they squeeze hovertechnology into something that small?'_ Her line of thoughts was derailed as the armor sprang into action, firing three more shells from what Shinji realized was a large weapon mounted on the underside of its right forearm. Unlike the previous ones, these shells detonated on contact, making the giant roar and charge at their source.

Being too close to use its weapon now, the armor let loose with a dual-barreled machinegun on its right wrist. This didn't do squat to the giant who lashed out, only to be foiled as the armor suddenly leapt high into the air at one of the buildings, kicked off it and onto another building, kicking off that one too and going back and forth higher and higher as it soared above the giant's head. Once having aquired the height advantage, it gracefully backflipped and, once upside down, let loose a pair of missiles from the launcher mounted onto its left shoulder straight into the giant's left eye.

In response, the giant roared and started flailing as it tried hitting its opponent, finally succeeding when a lucky hit connected and sent the armor into a building. Shinji winced. _'That gotta hurt.'_ Then the giant turned back towards her. _'Uh-oh.'_

"Don't worry." – came Misato's sudden answer to her unspoken concern. Shinji looked at the woman who started extracting herself from the Seiche's pilot seat. – "She'll come back."

"She?" – Shinji asked before she realized the rubble pile the armor was dug into was moving. When it collapsed, the armor emerged with lots of scratches but intact. Even as Shinji watched, the suit's surface rippled and the scratches molded themselves before her very eyes. – "What is that?"

"EDD armor." – replied Misato. – "It's capable of limited self-repair by ablating the damaged section and patching the hole with material taken from everywhere else. This makes concentrated attacks against a single point ineffective."

"Oookay... what does that mean?"

"Unless you have HEAT or APFSDS tank rounds, you can't kill it with a single shot." – summed up Misato as the suit slowly reached behind its back and pulled out a weapon Shinji saw on its back but doubted the usefulness of.

A gigantic hammer.

"Uh-oh..." – Misato breathed. – "She's pissed. You'd better take cover."

"What for?" – The answer came when the suit as a whole started humming and every single piece of debris was violently repelled away from it.

"That's the suit's active shield, made of a modified M-Curtain emitter." – Misato narrated as the suit _leapt_ at the giant who extended its arm. Just as the two combatants were about to clash, an octagonal energy field sprang into existence between them. Misato swore. – "Oh, damn. That's an AT-field; she can't touch that Angel until its gone. Time to see if that thing works." – Shinji was about to ask what works and what Angel before the suit opened up multiple holes all across itself. Each hole released small, bulbous emitters that simultaneously erupted into violent electric discharges. These were somehow attracted to the field which started rippling and flickering. – "Come on, come on..." – The field finally tore itself apart in a resounding ripping sound, allowing the suit to shoot through the hole. – "_YES!_ Way to go, Ritsie!" – Misato cheered.

This time, the giant's hand missed (just barely) the armor which flipped around and swung its hammer which was crackling with electricity. The instant the weapon connected, a deafening thunderous _**BANG**_ sounded as the contact point erupted into a blue-white shockwave, catapulting the giant's arm into the building the armor just climbed out of with such a force that the creature lost its footing and did a pirouette before crashing onto its back. Not only the impact collapsed the building onto the affected arm, the armor leapt high above the creature, bringing its powerhammer into a brutal overhead strike aimed at the large red orb in the giant's chest. Once again the impact produced a deafening shockwave, instantly pulverizing the orb into a cloud of gore that splattered in every direction, showering Shinji and Misato with blood and pieces of flesh.

Shinji tried her best not to gag as Misato looked at herself with annoyance. – "Damn, I just bought this!" – she groaned before her gaze fell onto the Seiche and her face sagged. – "How am I going to get this up...?" – she murmured before her face brighted up and turned towards the giant's body. – "Rei, over here! Could you give me a hand with this?" – The suit nodded and walked over, laying a single palm on the Seiche's upward-pointing wing and flipping the entire vehicle over with a single push. – "Thanks!" – Misato said cheerily as she patted the armor. Its head slowly turned in Shinji's direction, staring the girl down for several seconds before it turned tail and walked off with a noticeable limp.

Shinji was about to comment on it but was interrupted by Misato. – "This too. It cost me a whole fortune and now look at that!" – the woman moaned as she pointed at the sizeable dent on the Seiche's hull. – "And I still have over two dozen payments to go! What am I going to do with it?" – The girl just shrugged.

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><p><em>So, what do you guys think? Should I continue this story? Kudos to anyone who can tell what I'm crossing Evangelion over with.<em>


	2. Chapter 2

_Next chapter. I've been writing it for nearly a week but it's finally done._

_Most of this chapter is infodump but not as sloppily done as S2Ch1 of Ascension (I suspected it but thanks anyway, Grimallq)._

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 02<br>SECRET/WORLD**_  
><em>

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><p>Most of the ride was spent in silence. Not long after leaving the battlefield, the Seiche entered a tunnel leading into the depths of the artificial island that was Tokyo-3. Shinji didn't ask questions; she figured she probably wasn't supposed to know anyway. Misato however found the girl's silence uncomfortable. – "You still alive back there? You're pretty quiet."<p>

"Crazy day." – was all the answer she got. Naturally, the woman wasn't satisfied with just that.

"I know but really... I thought you'd be all over me right about now. I know you're probably wondering what's going on but I can't tell you. Not here, anyway."

"Then where?"

"The place where we're going to right now." – the woman replied, seconds before the walls of the tunnel vanished and were replaced by a blue glow. Shinji looked out... and her jaws immediately dropped.

The Seiche was traversing a transparent tube on the underside of the city, providing a breathtaking view of the various aquatic life on and below it. Unlike other permanent aquatic installations like oil rigs, Tokyo-3 wasn't affixed onto the seafloor but was free-floating, granting it a higher structural resistance against large-scale storms and complete immunity against tsunamis since the city could simply ride the tide. In case of a storm front powerful enough to make it run aground, the city's magnetohydrodynamic drives provided it with the ability to move out of the storm's way.

Normally, the city would be subject to the various tides and oceanic currents washing it around but those very same MH drives were also used to keep it in position. Using real-time weather data, buoy data from the nearby Kuroshio ocean current and a constant GPS feed, the state-of-the-art supercomputer built into the innards of Tokyo-3 known as the Avalon System could counter the city's forced movement and keep it at the same location.

Shinji didn't know any of this however as she stared with open wonder at the sea life outside. – "Awesome..." – she breathed.

"Finally you're acting like a real girl." – quipped Misato relieved. – "Anyway, see that?" – She pointed outside, at a dark cone shape that hung from the city like a massive stalactite. – "That's NERV Headquarters; the place where we're going."

"For a place that big, you'd suppose it's somewhere topside. Is this placement serves any purpose or did you build it merely for ominousness' sake?" – queried Shinji dryly.

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><p>"Damn this map..." – grumbled Misato as once again she realized they weren't where they were supposed to be.<p>

"I really don't think it's the map's fault..." – whispered Shinji to herself.

"Come on, it's that way." – said Misato as she pointed at a random corridor and attempted to leave but Shinji tugged on her top.

"No, it's not! That route leads us right back to the entrance!"

"How do you know?"

Shinji crossed her arms with a sour look. – "_Because_ we've already been here. Twice, in fact." – As Misato was searching for a suitable excuse, Shinji had enough and snatched the map from the woman's hands. Just one quick look and she took off. – "This way."

Misato had no choice but to follow the girl who led her straight to what she realized was a personnel elevator to the lower levels. _'Eh... oops.'_

Just three floors down, the elevator stopped. Shinji was about to groan in exasperation when the doors opened and a blonde woman stepped in. – "You're late, _Captain_." – she growled in annoyance at an embarrassed Misato.

"Uh, hi Ritsie. Sorry about that, got lost again." – Misato apologized sheepishly.

One of Shinji's eyebrows crept a hairbreadth higher. _'Again?'_

"It's not our fault you can't read maps, Misato. I don't think the old man would be happy to assign a permanent escort to you, we're stretched thin enough already. Anyway..." – the woman looked at Shinji. – "Is this the girl?"

"I have a name, you know." – grumbled Shinji but she went unheard.

"Yep. We got into some trouble topside but nothing we couldn't handle."

"Really? Because from what I heard, the Commander dispatched Unit-00 ahead of schedule in order to bail you out. Are you want to get fired years ahead of time, Misato?" – came the piercing question from the blonde.

"Of course not! I can't help it!"

"If that's the excuse you're giving to Ikari, you might as well start packing now." – Shinji's ears instantly perked up at the name. – "You know how much of a hardass he is."

"Yeah, tell me about it..."

"Especially considering what happened, I think you should duck and cover once he looks your way."

"What do you mean, 'considering what happened'?"

The blonde sighed. – "I told you we deployed Unit-00 ahead of time, right? We miscalibrated the LCL charge; it didn't dampen the kinetic shock that occurred when the Angel threw the Eva into that building. As soon as we retrieved it, Rei had to be taken to intensive care."

"Is she alright?"

"Several broken ribs and a dislocated arm, if you can call that 'alright'. She'll live."

Misato let out a relieved sigh. – "Well, that's a relief."

While this conversation was going on, Shinji listened intently and gathered facts. Once she saw it was her time, she butted in. – "Excuse me but I'm still in here too."

The blonde caught herself. – "Oh! I'm sorry. I am Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, head of the NERV Technological Division."

Shinji nodded. – "Pleasure's mine." – Her eyes wandered at the swimsuit the woman was wearing under her lab coat. – "Been taking a dip outside?" – she asked dryly.

"No, I had work to do. Had a pleasant trip?"

The girl scoffed. – "Depends on what you call 'pleasant'. If I'd known there was a _kaiju_ crawling around the city I'd have stayed in Iwaki and damn my old man. Speaking of which, what does he want anyway?"

"You'll find out soon enough." – Ritsuko replied after a heavy silence.

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><p>"If you're trying to impress me, hint: it's not working." – grumbled Shinji as the door leading into the hangar-like room sealed behind them, plunging the room in darkness.<p>

"We have no such thing in mind." – came Ritsuko's answer. Then a click sounded and the lights came on, illuminating what looked like a gigantic wall rack. In the center of it hung a massive armored suit similar to the one she saw in battle but while that one was homogenous orange, this one's only unusual color was the purple shoulder plates; every other surface was covered in grey urban camouflage. All across the suit were dozens of cables inserted into various points, making it look like an oversized marionette.

From the way it hung motionlessly, Shinji guessed the suit was unmanned. – "Can I ask what that thing is? Misato wouldn't tell me."

"What you see before you is an Evangelion-class Experimental Powered Exoskeleton. This is Unit-01, the second model ever built and the focus of all our research efforts."

"So this is what my old man's been busy with."

"Correct." – came an answer in a voice Shinji never expected to hear again.

That cold, soul-penetrating stare that still haunted her nightmares.

"It's been a while." – stated Gendo Ikari as he looked down at his daughter.

Shinji's right hand tightened into a fist. – "_Kono kusoyarō [You fucking bastard]_... you've got a lot of nerve to face me after _ten years_. What do you want?" – the girl spat.

"I have need of you."

Shinji chuckled coldly. – "So, that's it? You just whistle and expect me to come running like a trained dog?"

"That's what you have done, did you not?"

Shinji had a nigh-irresistible urge to march up there and threw that smug bastard off but decided against it. – "If you're trying to taunt me, don't bother. Did you think I haven't seen the armed guards hiding outside?" – Behind her, she heard Ritsuko angrily whispering to Misato; from the latter's hushed but audible answer, she guessed they didn't expect her perceptiveness. – "Even now there are probably over a dozen guys watching my every move. I'm not stupid enough to try anything. But don't try to stonewall me; what did you call me here for?"

"We need you as Unit-01's pilot."

Shinji just stood motionless for nearly a minute then chuckled. – "You're not serious, are you?" – She looked at the women behind him and the various technicians across the room with an incredulous smirk. – "You can't be serious! I'm not a military pilot nor am I a crazed otaku! I'm a realist! You can't seriously expect **ME**, an ordinary teenage girl, to pilot this thing!"

"You will be instructed." – stated Ritsuko without any emotion in her voice.

"That's not the point here! Why do you want me in particular?"

"Because no one else can." – came Gendo's answer from above.

"...your hand is in this, isn't it?" – grumbled Shinji. – "You didn't give a rat's ass to me in all my life. You say you need me and expect me to do it without a single word, aren't you? Well, where were YOU when I needed you, huh? When mom died you promptly threw me out into the street like thrash! _And now you expect me to just forget all that?_ Well, **FUCK YOU!**" – She ignored the shocked gasps all around her as she switched to maximum volume. – "**EMPATHY GOES BOTH WAYS AND YOU DIDN'T FULFILL YOUR END OF THE BARGAIN, ASSHOLE! WHAT IN THE WORLD MAKES YOU THINK I HAVE ****ANY**** OBLIGATIONS TOWARDS FULFILLING MINE? AND DON'T YOU ****DARE**** SAY 'BECAUSE I'M YOUR FATHER' OR I'LL SWEAR TO ALL DEITIES IN THE WORLD THAT YOU WON'T WALK OUT OF THIS ROOM UNSCATHED! YOU LOST EVERY RIGHT TO CALL YOURSELF MY PARENT THE VERY MINUTE YOU THREW ME OUT! I DON'T KNOW WHAT MOM SAW IN YOU BUT MARRYING YOU WAS THE WORST DECISION SHE EVER MADE! I'M ****ASHAMED**** TO CALL YOU MY BIOLOGICAL FATHER AND I CAN'T ****IMAGINE**** HOW THE WORLD CAN BEAR SCUM LIKE YOU LIVING IN IT!**"

Gendo patiently waited until Shinji exhausted herself before answering. – "Are you finished?"

"Yes... yes, I'm done. And my answer is this: _Go. To. Hell._ Find yourself someone else to mess around with, 'because I'm done with you." – growled Shinji as she started walking towards the door. – "I knew it was a mistake to come here..."

As she was about to leave for good, she heard the man calling after her. – "Are you not even concerned what we need the Evangelions for?"

"I don't care!" – she spat back. – "Even if you do something clichéd like saving the world won't move me. Besides, you already have one of those things running around, why do you need me too?"

"In that case, I will just send out your sister."

Shinji instantly stopped in her tracks and turned around slowly. – "...what in the blazes are you talking about now? I don't have a sister!"

"You will learn that in life, ignorance and denial are two separate things."

"What's she talking about?" – Misato asked Ritsuko who just gave her a telltale look. – "You mean... she didn't know? Oh, _**fuck**_." – she swore loudly.

"Captain Katsuragi, I expect you to refrain from using such language on the premises in the future." – Gendo warned the woman casually. – "Otherwise, there will be consequences."

"I am terribly sorry, sir. It won't happen again."

"See that it do not." – He then turned back to the silent Shinji. – "Since you haven't left I assume I have your undivided attention now, haven't I?"

"Everyone seems to know something I don't." – the girl growled.

The man made a cold smirk. – "Ignorance is a thing to be feared."

"Explain."

"You were never told how your mother died, am I correct?"

"Thanks to you deciding to get rid of me, yes."

"Birth complications."

Shinji waited for more but when none came, she spoke up. – "That's it?"

"That is all you need to know." – He then turned to leave. – "I have better things to do than give you historical lessons, _gaki [brat]_. Make your decision; do it or leave."

* * *

><p>"Are you alright?" – asked Misato as she offered a cup of coffee to Shinji who took it silently. They were in the facility's cafeteria which was currently devoid of people. – "Come on, cheer up."<p>

"What's the point in that?" – asked the girl bitterly. – "First he thinks I'm his slave then he tries to bluff me by saying I have a sister."

"Unfortunately, that was no bluff." – the woman admitted. – "I don't know why you didn't know about her but I'm sorry you had to learn it this way."

"Yeah, right... Look, I remember back to when mom died and I never had a sibling." – declared Shinji with a tone of sureness.

"Well... I heard a rumor that the Commander's wife died of birth complications."

"...maybe that's why I can't remember it. I don't remember her being pregnant but he sent me away right after she died; he never told me why or how she did." – She buried her face in her hands. – "Oh, this just keeps getting better and better..." – She finally looked at the woman. – "Do you know her? That sister, I mean."

"Actually... she was the pilot who saved us out there." – Misato admitted sheepishly.

She fully expected Shinji to have another temper tantrum, only to be proven wrong when the girl just shook her head. – "Based on when I was sent away, she can't be more than ten years old. Using his own child as a lab rat... why am I not surprised he can sink so low?" – she whispered.

"Well, you see... Rei is a rather... _special_ girl. Ritsuko can explain better."

"Special how?"

"She looks about as old as you; I don't know how's that possible."

'_A ten year old that looks like a fourteen year old? That's definitely not natural. What the hell did that bastard do to her?'_ "What's she like?"

"She's not exactly the social type and usually keeps to herself. Probably because she's really not the friendly type."

"So she's like _him_?"

"Uh, no. It's more like..." – Misato paused in search of the correct expression – "as if she's constantly angry at something."

"How long was she a pilot?"

"I don't know. She was here before I started working for NERV and I wasn't going to ask the Commander, you know?"

"I just don't get it. How do you guys bear him lording over you anyway?"

Misato shrugged. – "We don't really have a choice. He's got connections in the AAN at very high levels. Also..." – she beckoned at Shinji to lean closer as she switched to whispering – "There are rumors that he's got most of Section 2 – that's our internal security division – on his personal payroll as insurance."

"No one can upset the status quo or else his goons will take care of the opposition." – grumbled Shinji. – "What a sneaky bastard..."

"Anyway..." – Misato went back to her normal voice – "I imagine you're probably confused about what's going on."

"Well... yeah. I mean, what was that monster?"

Misato sent a long look at the girl before continuing. – "If you want to know, I can tell you. But be warned: this knowledge will probably shake your worldview to pieces."

"I can take it, thank you very much." – came the deadpan reply.

"In that case..." – the woman dug into her satchel and extracted a thick pile of paper she slid across the table.

Shinji glanced at the pile. – "What's this?"

"Non-disclosure agreement. I can't tell you anything if you don't sign that."

"Do I absolutely have to read all of it?"

"The gist of it is this: whatever you see or hear in this facility _stays here_. We will be monitoring your phone calls, your letters, your e-mails, your chatroom conversations, everything. If you don't keep your mouth shut, the AAN will be breathing down on your neck before you know it. There's a reason this wasn't revealed to the public and we intend to keep it that way."

"Is it really that bad?"

"You decide, once you sign it."

"First matter are the Evangelions. You see, they're not just machines. Rather, they're composed of a special material we call 'biometal'."

Shinji raised an eyebrow. – "Biometal?"

"Yes. We know that it's artificial in origin but we've never seen anything like it."

"Then how did you guys make it?"

"We didn't." – At the girl's confused face, Misato elaborated. – "We only found and used it."

"If you didn't make it then who did? Aliens?" – asked Shinji skeptically.

"This'll take a bit to explain. Do you know about the Space Race?"

"You mean the contest between the US and the Soviets back in the past century? Everyone does."

"What if I were to tell you that it was only a cover-up for something else?"

"You mean those conspiracy theorist idiots who insist there never was a manned mission to the Moon? It's a load of bu-"

Misato interrupted. – "What if there _was_ a Moon landing but the landing itself was the cover-up?"

"What are you saying?" – Misato simply slid a photograph across the table as answer. Shinji took a single look... and her jaw almost fell off. – "What the hell?" – The picture was old and grainy but she clearly saw a group of buildings superimposed over a grey horizon and a black sky, with the Earth's clearly identifiable silhouette hanging above them.

"NSDF Moon Base Eagle's Nest One. It was just a couple hundred meters from the place where the first US expedition landed back in 1969."

"This is crazy..."

"That's not all." – She slid two more photos across the table. One was clearly her Seiche but the other... the hull was mostly dark grey aside from the five-pointed white star on the side and there were two gun barrels jutting from the nose but the vehicle itself was bizarrely similar. – "See the similarity? It's an NSDF M580A2 _Razor_ fast attack and reconnaissance vehicle, first put into active service in 1967. My hovercraft is a civilian version built after the AAN released the design to the public." – At Shinji incredulous expression she added. – "Hovertechnology is about half-a-century old and was discovered along with biometal."

"Discovered?"

"They first found biometal in the fifties after a meteor shower in the Bering Strait area up north. It didn't resemble any known Earth materials and gave us some incredible technological advances like hovertechnology, rapid-fabrication using nano-assemblers, rudimentary energy weapons, you name it. It didn't take them long to realize it came from space so they started doing some calculations and bingo: several other bodies in the Solar System were also hit by the same shower. It was only a matter of time until someone in the US government gave the order to harvest the stuff and bring back as much as possible. If it only were that easy..."

"What happened?"

"The Soviets also caught wind of it and started their own program. When both sides realized the other wanted the same thing, Nixon and Brezhnev secretly agreed to put on a good show to misdirect the world's attention from what they were actually doing up in space. Hence came the so-called 'Space Race' which was actually the public face of a full-scale interplanetary war waged for the control of biometal between the American NSDF and the Soviet CCA."

"You're kidding, right? You want me to believe those two went to war with each other and no one ever knew it?"

"Exactly. I know it's hard to believe but that's the truth. They traded blow for blow until..." – Misato trailed off.

"Until what?"

"Let's just say the Soviets went a bit far with their experimentation. They found an ancient databank left behind by a civilization not of this world; we later found out it originated from the race who created the biometal in the first place. Using that device, the CCA created an autonomous hunter-killer drone codenamed Project Fury."

"Wait a minute here, I know where this goes. Those Fury things turned against them, right?"

"How did you know?"

Shinji waved dismissively. – "Call it a hunch. I'm not a fan of sci-fi but that sort of thing _always_ happens."

"Oookay... anyway, the Furies decided not to be anyone's lapdogs and went on a killing spree, routing the CCA so hard they surrendered to the NSDF who were forced to clean up the mess on their own. There was some impressive collateral damage including the destruction of a Uranian moon but eventually, the war ended with the NSDF and the CCA making friends with each other and joining forces as the ISDF."

"I'm not a historian but Americans and Soviets going all buddy-buddy during the Cold War?" – asked Shinji skeptically. – "I just can't see that happening."

"Well, that came after something else. You see, the NSDF did their own Fury research but in a different direction, using human wetware instead of an automated system. These weren't really cooperative either so they laid waste to the research lab and escaped after raising some hell. I don't know how but the lead scientist of the NSDF project, a guy named Armand Braddock managed to twist the story in his favor and got himself promoted to general. Just a few years before Second Impact, these Scions returned with some shiny new toys and raised some hell on Pluto, prompting Braddock to come running with an entire army behind him and push the Scions back to the trans-plutonian planet Tenebrus and the Mire system. Of course, it eventually turned out nothing was what it seemed."

"How?"

"There was some suspicion in the ISDF that Braddock might be hiding something, especially after one of his subordinates who criticized him, Yelena Shabayev, promptly disappeared in an accident. But it was not until the AAN ambassador Kossieh who was about to meet with the Scion leader Frank Burns in order to start peace talks died in an apparent booby-trap incident and Shabayev turned out to have defected to the Scions after the accident which was actually an attempt on her life that shit really hit the fan."

Shinji sighed as she rubbed her forehead. – "Let me guess: Braddock was the bad guy?"

"Yes. He had ties with a rebel Scion faction who staged the attack on the Pluto outpost so that he would have an excuse to start a war and gain control over the Scions' technology and massive biometal supplies he would use to topple the AAN. Not only that but that Voyager probe that went missing in the nineties? Braddock's goons shot it down in order to avoid their bases being discovered by the AAN since said bases were built from smuggled materials." – Misato scoffed. – "Power hunger at its best... anyway, all of his plan came crashing down when one of Shabayev's subordinates deserted and followed her over to the Scions, shortly followed by Braddock's right-hand man staging a mutiny out of loyalty to the AAN. These two joined forces and backed Braddock right into a corner." – Misato smirked triumphantly. – "His remains are currently floating in an acid lake somewhere on the planet Rend in the Mire system."

"Serves him right..." – muttered Shinji. – "But aside from the unusual historical lesson, how do I come into this?"

"Oh, right. You see, the AAN decided to keep biometal and everything related to it a secret since if it came out that governments were lying to the people for decades... it's best not to think about it. NERV is one of the very few civilian agencies with access to biometal but we're the only ones who have unlimited access to the ISDF's primary biometal stockpile on Venus. We have an open-ended contract with the ISDF to create medium-scale powered armor to supplement their peacekeeping forces – those would be the Evangelions."

"Why are there only two?"

"Three." – At Shinji's questioning expression, Misato explained. – "We have three functioning models including Unit-01. Unit-00 is what you saw in the city and Unit-02 will be shipped into the city a few weeks from today."

"Why not now?"

"Red tape." – came the simple answer. – "And it's not like we can build more merely at a moment's notice; ISDF rapid-fabrication tech can assemble a twelve-meter tall _Attila_ battlewalker in twenty seconds flat but Evangelions are too complex for that. If one gets damaged, we can melt down and rebuild the armor plates in a second but if one gets destroyed, it'll take us months to make a new one. Which brings me to the matter at hand..." – Misato said with a tone of finality as she folded her hands. – "Will you pilot Unit-01 or not?"

Shinji was prepared for the question to come at any time but still didn't make up her mind about it. – "How the hell should I know? You tell me so much craziness I don't know where to put it in my head and now this? Look." – she leaned close to Misato with a sudden seriousness that surprised the woman. – "I know this is what he wants and _I don't want to give it to him_. Call it childish obnoxiousness if you want; I call it _revenge with a side order of gratification_. In other words, _**payback out of spite**_. So you'd better give me a _very_ good reason why I should stay because I won't do it for _him_."

"Then don't." – answered Misato, just as serious. – "No one said to stay for him. I know what it's like to be on bad terms with your father so hear me out: if you don't like him, don't stay for him because it will only end badly. Instead, stay for yourself. Or rather, for your sister."

"What about her?"

"Think a little: she's heavily injured due to a malfunction in her Evangelion. If another Angel comes, who's going to fight it? If she goes out and her Eva malfunctions again, she's going to die. You are pretty adamant that you are different from your father so let me ask you this: _are you willing to live with the knowledge that you sent someone to her death because you didn't take responsibility?_"

Shinji scowled. – "This is emotional blackmail." – she said but inside, she was starting to doubt her decision to just walk out and leave this crazyhouse behind her.

"I know and I'm sorry about it, I really am-"

"Yeah, right..."

"-but she's depending on you. You criticized your father for using her like this but are you really different from him if you abandon her for a grudge on someone else?"

A very long silence followed during which Misato was worried the girl might refuse anyway. She hated herself for having resorted to such a dirty trick but she didn't want Rei to get hurt even more if she had to sit in Unit-00 again. Finally, her concern was abated by a quiet voice. – "What do I have to do?"

* * *

><p>"Are you sure it's okay?" – asked Shinji as the two left the apartment complex' elevator. As soon as she reluctantly agreed to step in for her newly gained sister, it occurred to her that she didn't have a place to stay. She sure as hell wasn't going to live with her father and she told that to Misato. Luckily for her, the woman offered her own apartment – beats being alone anyway.<p>

So here they were, just a couple meters from Misato's apartment after having visited a small convenience store and stocked up due to what Misato dubbed a 'welcome party for her newest roommate'. The area wasn't exactly high-rise but Shinji couldn't care less; the family she lived with prior to coming to the city wasn't a rich one either. This suited her just fine.

"Hey, I said it's no problem, right?" – answered Misato with a smile.

"Still..." – Shinji studied the woman carefully. – "You can't be more than thirty. Aren't you bringing guys home and... stuff?"

A vein started pulsating on the still smiling Misato's forehead. – "If you're implying I'm a slut, I'll throw you off the balcony and damn what the Commander says. It's just the two of us here."

"I already said I don't roll that way."

The vein grew in size. – "_**That's not what I meant!**_ You don't have to worry about being in the way, I don't usually bring guys home and I'm _definitely_ not a lolicon."

'_What a relief...'_ Shinji thought sarcastically as they finally arrived to the door bearing **M. KATSURAGI** on the nameplate. Misato fished an electronic card out of her pocket and swiped it through the reader next to the door; the automated door quickly slid open. Shinji didn't saw an automated door in a private residence before but hoped the rest of the apartment was normal.

It turned out his worry was unfounded, as the interior was pretty much normal. Well, normal in one thing. – "Sorry, it's a bit messy right now." – apologized Misato sheepishly as she went into a side room Shinji guessed was her room.

'_Messy. Right. A bit. Like hell.'_

It was an _absolute wreck_: heaps of beer cans laid everywhere as a testament to Misato's heavy drinking habits, surrounded by wrappers and boxes of instant and junk food. Shinji guessed the woman wasn't a good cook which meant she was going to find something edible elsewhere.

"Oh, could you put that stuff in the fridge? Thanks!" – called out Misato as Shinji heard the rustling of clothes. Seeing that she had nothing better to do, the girl growled back an acknowledgement and took their store acquisitions to a fridge. Upon opening it however, she found there wasn't really any free space in it due to two entire shelves being taken up by unopened beer cans.

"Jeez, no wonder she doesn't have a guy... guess her breath doubles as a male repellent..." – Shinji mused to herself as she started creating some order in the fridge.

Misato eventually emerged, wearing a somewhat tight tank top and _very_ tight shorts. Again, Shinji thanked whatever deities are out there that she wasn't a boy; she knew what effect that kind of spectacle had on members of the opposite sex and was repulsed by the mere idea of it. She didn't have anything against boys but she didn't like being viewed as _meat_.

As the two sat down for dinner, Shinji merely shook her head in exasperation at Misato's enthusiastic yell after downing an entire can of beer. – "What's with the gloomy atmosphere? We're at home. Lighten up and start acting like the girl you are!" – came the woman's mock demand.

"A question: where am I going to sleep?"

Misato scratched her head. - "Well, I have an empty room. Is that good?" – After several seconds of silence, she looked up and saw Shinji staring at the table. – "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just that... I never had my own room before." – confessed the girl.

"How come?"

"The couple I've been living with, they have a girl about my age. We shared a room."

"And...?" – asked Misato, clearly expecting more.

"What 'and'? I didn't mind 'cause she's my best friend. Besides..." – she looked down again – "I don't like being alone."

Another awkward silence passed until Misato once again butted in. – "Well, how 'bout a nice hot bath to wash away your troubles?"

* * *

><p>Shinji glanced at the female underwear on the drier hanging from the ceiling. She wasn't unaccustomed to the sight as she was a girl too. It's the open display which grabbed her attention. As she was about to enter the bathroom, she slowly took her hand off the door and walked to the drier, fishing one of the bras off it. She experimentally lifted the piece of clothing to her own naked chest; as expected, she wasn't even close – in fact, she had to press the cups in to even feel her buds touching the interior. Nature didn't really bless her in either height (she was over a head shorter than Misato) or endowment but she didn't mind. She knew from observation that large-breasted women tend to draw attention which was exactly what she wanted to avoid.<p>

One might think the dislike of being alone and the dislike of being the center of attention are mutually exclusive but Shinji didn't think so. She merely liked to determine herself what kind of company she would have and an almost non-existent A-cup gives her ample amounts of stealth. Of course, she wasn't completely satisfied with it either – those physicals with the other girls watching are so damn awkward...

After hanging the bra back to its original place, Shinji walked back to the door and slid open the door. She immediately heard a strange sound and looked down. She stared indifferently for a couple of seconds before releasing a sigh and shaking her head. – "A penguin... now I've seen everything. You should've at least said the bathroom was occupied." – She quickly caught herself. – "On second thought, forget that. You can't talk anyway." – The bird tilted its head to one side as it gazed at her in a weirdly intelligent way. – "Well, off you go. I need the bathtub so shoo." – she said as she stood to the side, allowing the penguin to tip-toe off after it sent a strangely curious look at her naked body. Shinji just shook her head again as she went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. – "Why am I not surprised at this crazyhouse?"

Five minutes later, Shinji was soaking herself in the hot water as her brain took in her recent experiences. _'Man, what a day... I gotta write a letter or something that I'll be here for quite a while. Maybe they'll send the rest of my stuff after me. Still... this Katsuragi woman seems nice. I don't know what she's doing but she can't be a scientist; she's too much of a slob for that. Security, maybe? She said she's a captain so she's probably a low-ranking head honcho.'_

She involuntarily went back to her meeting with her father. Apparently, he was a high-ranking member of this NERV organization and was running a tight ship. That didn't surprise her; she figured he probably wasn't a textbook family man. While she didn't know it, Shinji inherited her father's analytical mind with which she deduced he must be using fear to keep his subordinates in line, an approach that - while effective at short-term - causes more harm than good at long-term since it alienates said subordinates.

Therefore, there should be at least one person sympathetic to her plight. Misato seemed like a good place to start.

'_Alright, you bastard. Two can play this game.'_


	3. Chapter 3

_Alright, next chapter's here. I've been getting somewhat positive reaction to this fic, thanks._

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 03<br>SCHOOL/DAY  
><strong>

* * *

><p>For nearly half a second, she was in complete darkness. The almost suffocating pressure coming from every direction dulled her sense of touch until she couldn't determine which way was up or down. Then her vision was filled by several frames filled with scrolling code as she felt the machine around her come to life. – "<em>First phase boot sequence complete, POST reports no abnormalities.<em>" – she heard through the intercom from the control room. – "_Bringing low-level systems online. Pilot, please verify cockpit telemetry data link positive function._"

"Confirmed. Data links active." – Shinji replied automatically, monotonously going through the same procedures over and over again.

"_Good morning, Shinji. How are things?_" – asked Ritsuko through the intercom.

"As usual." – the girl replied curtly. – "Why are we having yet another test?"

"_Call it insurance in case we need to call upon your help. Have you memorized everything I told you to?_"

"No idea."

"_Then let's review it, shall we? As you know, Evangelions were designed to be highly adaptable to any environment. The biometal outer hull is photovoltaic and functions like a giant solar cell, continuously generating power as long as you operate in an at least moderately bright environment; even a clouded day will suffice. This is what we call the primary circuit. Whenever you perform maneuvers the primary circuit's power output can't support, the required energy is provided by the secondary circuit composed of an internal battery that continuously recharges using excess primary circuit power. The secondary circuit is NOT a long-term power source which means if you find yourself in a situation where you can't rely on the primary circuit, we advise you to retreat. In emergency situations, we can equip Evangelions with a tertiary circuit which is a backpack-mounted radioisotope thermoelectric generator. You already saw it in action during Unit-00's armed intervention._"

"Yes, I know."

"_This is also a temporary solution as the slightest damage to the reactor core might result in radiological contamination of the surrounding area. In addition, the generator requires constant cooling which means the Evangelion's infrared signature becomes very high._"

"Uh... can I have a question?" – asked Shinji.

"_What is it?_"

"What happens if it's too dark to use the primary but also too hot to cool the tertiary?"

She expected the scientist to be puzzled at an unexpected situation, only to be proven wrong when a chuckle came through. – "_Good question. In such a scenario, we can convert the primary circuit into a thermophotovoltaic cell which uses infrared radiation instead of light. If you paid attention in physics class, you'll know that the common name of infrared radiation is heat, even though that is a major oversimplification. I could go on all day explaining the actual mechanics involved but I doubt you understand nuclear physics. Therefore, let's continue with the test._"

Shinji rolled her eyes at the scientist's attitude but said nothing about it. – "I'm ready."

"_Understood. Log event, 0835 hours. Initiating VR simulation No. 126._" – The code frames disappeared and were replaced by a computer-generated wireframe landscape that was quickly populated by colorless blocks rising from the ground to simulate buildings.

Shinji felt the pressure around her being released as the armor lockdown released. Of course, she knew it was only the simulation but was told it feels the same way the real deal does. As her recent training kicked in, she immediately dashed to the nearest building and took cover. She already took this training scenario a few times and knew what to expect: two hostiles armed with RPG-32s utilizing bounding overwatch to advance on her position. Her objective was neutralizing both without taking any damage, a task she found quite difficult at first until she realized her father ordered the crew to let her find everything on her own. Shinji was quite pissed when she heard about it.

Her topographical radar let out two short beeps as two red squares appeared on the edge of her detection radius. Apparently such technology was standard-issue in ISDF ground vehicles. She set the pulse frequency higher and watched as one of the dots came closer then stopped. Then the other moved past the first and stopped and so on, the two leapfrogging each other.

Shinji waited patiently until one target came out onto the street then extended one hand towards the corner she was hiding behind. A small compartment on her wrist opened and extended a thin fiber-optic cable she angled in such a way to see the hostile through a picture-in-picture display of her HUD. It wasn't anything special, merely a low-res stick figure colored red. On the other hand, she knew from experiencing it the hard way that their appearance didn't make their weapons any less dangerous.

She marked the target which caused a red arrow to appear on the edge of her vision, captioned with **HOSTILE – 112M**. She was told that Evangelions have a squad-level networked targeting system that allows unprecedented squad-level coordination and situation awareness by sharing tactical information such as enemy positions and individual targeting data with teammates, somewhat similar to what the US army planned to introduce shortly after Second Impact. Shinji wasn't a soldier but even she understood what Misato meant when she said 'good battlefield intelligence is a force multiplier of its own'.

Seeing an opening as her target stopped to guard the other's movement, Shinji bounded around the corner hand-first. _'Target center of mass'_ she recited in her head as her crosshair affixed onto the target's torso. _'Open fire.'_ She fired her wrist-mounted autocannon which blew the target into pieces with its high-caliber rounds. The other immediately stopped and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at her position but Shinji leapt away from her further hiding place which turned into rubble not a second later. She landed with a crash that would've cracked the pavement were the engagement to happen in the real world. She noticed the secondary power gauge falling to 98% but returning to full after a few moments. – "Weapon." – she spoke into her microphone and the voice-recognition software activated, changing the caption in the lower right corner of her HUD from **MINIGUN** to **MDM MORTAR**. – "Magshield." – came the next command and she heard a low hum starting up around her. The next grenade flew straight towards her... then changed direction mid-air and flew to the side as the active shield repelled it. She was told it wasn't a perfect defense as non-magnetic munitions and some high-velocity rounds are completely unaffected by it – specifically, anti-material rifles.

Which her second target happened to have as well.

"Shield." – she said casually and held out her Evangelion's left forearm in front of herself. Several pore-like structures opened on the appendage and a wall of hexagons materialized in front of her like a giant honeycomb, a large-caliber bullet sandwiching itself against it. This was the Evangelion's passive defense system, a reverse-engineered version of a Scion stasis shield. From the corner of her eye Shinji saw the internal power gauge taking a massive dip and draining steadily. She didn't have much time so she aimed the Evangelion's right forearm onto the small red dot she saw above her attacker and fired again.

This time, the tube on the underside of the weapon arm fired, spitting a smoking projectile into the air. She followed it with her eye while also monitoring her power gauge; it was already below 30%. When it bas barely three meters above her target and falling fast, she depressed the fire trigger again. The mortar shell airburst, pounding her target into the ground with a shower of shrapnel just as the shield shut down.

A few seconds later, her HUD displayed **SIMULATION COMPLETE** and the artificial landscape vanished. – "_Nice work._"

"Thanks. I was wondering, though..."

"_Yes?_"

"With all these tests we did here, how come I never ran out of ammo? I mean, is it just the simulation?"

"_No. Evangelions use the standard-issue nano-ammo system developed shortly before the First Biometal War. Instead of ammunition, the Evangelion is loaded with a canister of biometal granules used by the weapon's autoloader to manufacture the ammunition on-demand. This way, all weapons can use the same ammunition supply so there's no need to load up with dead weight you will most likely not use. Anyway, enough chatter. We're loading the next simulation._"

"Alright." – answered Shinji and braced herself for the next task.

* * *

><p>In the control room, Ritsuko and her apprentice Maya Ibuki were supervising the process. After a while, Maya turned to the older woman. – "I'm still surprised she agreed to this. Everyone can see that she and the Commander don't get along."<p>

"The post-Impact world is a harsh place." – Ritsuko replied.

"Pardon me for asking, but is it true that the Commander sent her away at a young age?"

"He had no choice. Expecting a newly widowed man to raise two small children on his own is foolish. If Shinji were to be in her father's position, I'm sure she would've done the same."

"That's harsh." – quipped Misato from the back of the room.

"It's true. And besides, just look at how Rei ended up. Could you imagine two of her?" – Ritsuko involuntarily shuddered at the thought.

Most of the test proceeded without conversation, the three women watching as Shinji went from one training scenario to another. Finally, Misato broke the silence. – "How long are you going to make her do this?"

"We're not forcing her." – answered Ritsuko emotionlessly. – "She agreed to it herself and can leave at any time. If I remember correctly, you were the one who convinced her to do it so why are you even asking?"

Misato looked away. – "That doesn't mean I haven't been feeling like crap about it..." – she murmured to herself.

* * *

><p>Tōji Suzuhara was not having a good day.<p>

His life wasn't what one would call ideal: losing his mother at an early age, he was left with a father who spent more time at work than at home as well as a sister still in elementary school. The two weren't exactly warm to each other; after all, it is a big brother's unsaid obligation to be mean to his younger siblings, right?

What made him have a bad mood was that the brat wandered outside the shelters during the alert (what was that about, anyway?) and got caught under some rubble. Now she was in hospital with the doctors giving her legs a 50/50 chance between full recovery and lifelong lameness. He was, of course, worried sick but his pride demanded he hide it. Like hell was he going to make himself the subject of laughter for that brat!

This inner conflict was tearing him up and making him more irritable than usual. He saw it better to keep out of school for over a week; this way he wouldn't "accidentally" beat someone up to channel his pent-up tension. He wasn't exactly the sharpest mind in the world but everyday tricks like that weren't far from him.

These thoughts were temporarily driven from his mind when he entered the classroom and noticed the amount of classmates to be significantly lower than usual. Looking around, he noted one good and one bad news. Good news: his best buddy Kensuke was still present. Bad news: so was his arch-nemesis, the class representative. He didn't know what crawled up her ass and died but she was always keeping an eye on him.

Kensuke on the other hand was his friend since elementary. The two met when Tōji scared off some bullies that targeted the smaller boy. Kensuke was different from the others just enough to be noticed: while the other boys spent their pocket money on shōnen manga and their time on various sports, he sat at home and read the works of Shirō Masamune. His obsession with modern militaries was also on a somewhat unhealthy level; Tōji teased him numerous times that if he keeps going like this, he'll marry a tank instead of a girl. It certainly didn't help that Kensuke had a fully functional remote-controlled model of a Merkava Mk.V he held in great regards.

As he walked towards his desk in front of Kensuke, he saw Hikari approaching it too and heard her voice. – "Aida, did you deliver the printouts to Suzuhara?"

The boy visibly started sweating. – "Uh... there wasn't anyone at his place so I couldn't."

A bead of sweat ran down Tōji's forehead too. _'Shit, I was at the hospital...'_

Hikari didn't take that answer well. – "You're his friend, right?"

Seeing Kensuke's predicament, Tōji decided to intervene. – "Give 'im a break, _inchō_. I'm here anyway so it doesn't matter." – he said, announcing his presence to the two.

While Kensuke was relieved, Hikari jumped a little at his sudden appearance before turning around. – "Suzuhara, where were you?" – she demanded.

"None of yer business." – he replied offhanded, drawing an irritated glare from the girl before she left.

"Thanks for getting her off my back, _aniki_." – whispered Kensuke as soon as Hikari was out of earshot.

"No problem, man." – He looked around the classroom. – "What's up, did we went extinct?"

"Nah, most of the class transferred out. The recent attack on the city seems to have spooked them." – explained Kensuke. – "Well, except for the transferee."

"What transferee?"

"That one." – Kensuke pointed at the sole figure of Shinji who was currently sulking with earplugs in, all desks in a substantial radius around her empty of occupants. – "Class rep told us about it yesterday."

"So the guy's a pretty new arrival, huh?" – murmured Tōji. From behind, the person wasn't anything special.

"Well, that's the catch. That 'guy' is actually a girl."

Tōji snorted. – "Like hell. Look at that uniform." – He was referring to the standard white shirt and black pants that was the male dress code for students. While Tōji himself had a tracksuit, he had a good excuse we shall not go into.

"I don't really understand either but she's a she alright. I even heard her talk with the class rep. Anyway, there's something fishy here."

"What?"

"The city gets attacked by something, the military keeps it all hush-hush so we don't know what. Most of the class transfers out except this girl who transfers _in_. She also keeps to herself. I'm telling you, something's not right here." – insisted Kensuke.

"You're just paranoid."

At the front of the room, Shinji sighed. Those earplugs weren't just for show: she really was listening to music but she kept it at a low volume so that she can hear what's going on around her. It was easier to collect information via eavesdropping if your target thinks you're not listening. She already pulled that trick out with Misato and Ritsuko several times without getting caught. It wasn't her choice to come to school in the first place but she had no say in it; she insisted in vain that there's no point in arranging a transfer since her stay is only temporary but her real concern was something else: if she starts going to a local school, there would be no reason for her to leave the city.

Besides, the choice of which school to go to wasn't hers either. Someone in the higher-ups decided for her to go to the same class as her sister, citing 'easier surveillance'.

She still remembered her first time of seeing her sister. Ritsuko explained to her that Rei has a hormonal disorder that causes her body to mature roughly 40% faster than normal. While it had positive effects such as an unusually dense muscle and bone structure, the accelerated growth also causes several abnormalities such as her inability to produce melanin. This is what caused her apparent albinism.

Her first impression was that she was staring at a life-sized doll. Blue hair which she was told were neither wig nor dye job provided stark contrast with the white bandages around her forehead but her body was astonishingly mature for a ten year old: her height was about the same as Shinji's but neither the hospital gown nor the sling could've hid the generous chest. Rei Ikari could've passed for a sixteen year old without any effort.

Something kept Shinji from entering the room so she just kept staring through the ward's window. Rei wasn't doing anything one would've expected a child to do but just sat there motionlessly as if asleep. Yet her upright sitting pose was definitely one of someone fully awake. This was decisively reinforced when the bandaged head which was previously staring outside slowly turned in Shinji's direction. One eye was bandaged but the other revealed a crimson iris Shinji found disturbingly familiar until she placed it: it was the same eyes that assaulted her mind after her arrival into the city.

And the current situation wasn't any different: the gaze lacked any warmth or familiarity. All she could see was cold hostility mixed with clear killing intent from a beast that lurked beneath the surface.

She still didn't know what made her run away from the building. Maybe a primal part of her brain firing a fight-or-flight reflex, who knows. All she knew was that she couldn't bear that gaze any longer. Shinji wasn't a squeamish girl yet that eye frightened her more than anything in her life.

What Ritsuko told her afterwards justified her reaction: Rei was an anomaly. Since they haven't found a cure for her condition, her father decided to have her receive private tutoring until recently. This led to the pediatricians studying her to discover Rei has near-inhuman cognitive abilities as well as what initially appeared to be a low attention span but eventually turned out to be simple boredom at insufficiently challenging tasks; she never played with toys and disliked children's books as 'meaningless'. But what really alerted them to her abnormality was the fact that she reacts _very_ badly to attempted punishment, frequently lapsing into violent temper tantrums. The first time her supervisor tried restraining her, it didn't end well: the woman had to be carried away on a stretcher half an hour later with what looked like a heavy concussion. Examination however revealed signs of a severe beating including multiple bones which were literally _pulverized_ by blunt force trauma. After that incident, all personnel handling her had a standing order to stay away from her during temper tantrums and remove any potential weapons from the area until she calms down. The higher-ups were seemingly unconcerned with the scattered, confused and unverified reports of paranormal activity around the girl whenever she's particularly agitated.

That last part really blew Shinji's mind, although she didn't show it. An actual _nōryokusha_, so close to her? Simply unbelievable.

There wasn't any need for Ritsuko's warning for her about not telling anyone; no one would've believed the existence of an esper anyway.

And now that very same girl was staring out of the window just a few meters away from her. They haven't shared a single word; in fact, Rei didn't even acknowledge Shinji's existence. Shinji in response let her be. There's no reason to piss off a walking timebomb by attempting to force her into conversation; Shinji valued her own life, thank you very much.

The rest of the time before class passed calmly until the teacher came in and the class representative ordered the whole class to bow. Shinji for her part considered it ludicrous; one can have respect for someone else without visibly humbling oneself, right? This is the 21st century, not the feudal ages! She just went with it anyway to avoid drawing attention to herself.

Until the roll call came, that is.

"Ikari, Rei."

"Present."

The teacher paused and narrowed his eyes before continuing. – "Ikari, Shinji."

"Present." – announced Shinji. At once, the entire class turned towards her as the teacher looked up.

"Any relation between the two of you?"

Shinji opened her mouth to answer but Rei beaten her to it. – "No, sir. There is nothing."

That... wasn't what Shinji expected. A calm denial might've convinced someone but not the teacher; Shinji suspected that the same entry in the 'father's name' field would be a dead giveaway. He still dropped the matter though and continued the roll call. That didn't remove everyone else's attention, though. Shinji felt increasingly nervous and irritated from all the aside glances and whispers.

* * *

><p>The class was, to put it mildly, boring as hell. Just a few minutes was enough to utterly convince the girl that nothing important will be said. The rest of the classmates appeared to have similar thoughts: many started low-volume chatter, many others enjoyed a quick desktop nap.<p>

Somewhere during the class, Shinji noticed everyone seemingly focusing on something shortly before her desk's integrated netbook released an almost inaudible chirping. Checking that no one who mattered was watching (the teacher was monologuing to himself while the class rep was the only one who even tried paying attention), she turned up the screen. It was the intranet instant messaging program, signaling an incoming message. She decided to humor whoever sent it and opened it.

**IS IT TRUE WHAT REI SAID?**

Shinji sighed and wrote back **SORT OF**.

**MEANING?**

**NO BUT I WISH IT WAS**

Once again everyone looked at her, alarming Shinji that the chatroom was a classroom-wide open broadcast. _'Oops...'_

**WHAT DO YOU MEAN?** came the quick demand.

**LONG STORY** wrote Shinji carefully.

Apparently, that wasn't enough for her interrogators. **SHORT VERSION?**

Shinji spent nearly a whole minute thinking about what to write then finally decided on a simple statement. **MY FATHER IS AN ASSHOLE**

A wave of chuckling swept through the room, prompting the class rep to turn around with a warning scowl directed at everyone in general. Shinji meanwhile felt an icy feeling in her head that radiated somewhere from the windows. Turning in the general direction, she realized Rei was giving her a _very_ nasty death glare. A quick glance at the other girl's desk however confused Shinji. _'Her machine's not even on; what's her deal?'_ As soon as that thought formed, she had the answer. _'Right, ESP. Looks like those reports weren't complete bullshit after all...'_

Shortly before the end of class, she received another message. **DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE ATTACK TWO WEEKS AGO?**

'_Oh, boy. Here we go...'_ **NOT MUCH**

**ARE YOU THE PILOT OF THAT ROBOT?**

Shinji recoiled at the piercing question. _'Direct, aren't we?'_ **DEPENDS**

**ON WHAT?**

She grinned evilly. _'This should mess him up real good.'_ **DEPENDS ON WHICH ONE YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT**

An instant later, the entire classroom erupted into a single roar. – "_EEEEEEEEEEH?_"

* * *

><p>Shinji let out a deep sigh as she finally managed to shake the last of her new fans. They kept her pestering with questions she constantly averted with 'can't tell, classified'. Many of them weren't satisfied with that question but too bad because that's all they're going to get out of her. She wasn't stupid enough to go spouting information that can get her into jail, if not worse.<p>

Her musing was interrupted when a shadow crept onto her feet. Looking up at the source, she saw the jock in her class staring at her none-too-pleased. – "What is it? If you've come to pester me about details, piss off."

That only seemed to infuriate the jock further. – "I don't give a damn about that. Is what you said true? Are you the pilot of that thing?"

"One of them, yes." – she replied carefully.

"...if ya weren't a girl, I'd punch yer living daylights out."

Shinji narrowed her eyes. – "First, I'm not sexist so if you want to hit me, go ahead and I won't tell a soul. Second, would you mind explaining?"

The jock looked around before answering. – "Because you _fucked up_, that's why! When you fought in that thing, did you even consider for a second that someone might be nearby?" – he snarled.

"Fought in it? Wait a sec, I never said that!"

"Bullshit! You just said you're the pilot!"

"I said I'm _one of the pilots_, not which one! I haven't even seen that thing outside simulations!" – explained Shinji defensively.

"Then who was it? **WHO WAS THE FUCK WHO CRASHED INTO THAT BUILDING AND ALMOST KILLED MY SISTER?**" – he yelled in fury as he violently yanked the girl upwards by the neck of her shirt, absently noticing a white bra strap that finally proved his target's gender.

"_Sore wa watakushi desu. [That is me.]_" – came the quiet answer. He immediately turned around and came face to face with Rei who was staring at him impassively.

"What the hell do you want, Ikari? Are you trying to protect her?"

"I have no such intention. If you wish to harm that person, proceed at your discretion." – Rei replied while looking into Shinji's eyes with an almost mocking expression. – "In either case, be advised that I am the person you are looking for."

"You expect me to believe that? You're barely standing, how could you do something like that?" – Tōji demanded skeptically.

"My injuries were caused by a minor system malfunction. The target has been neutralized; further consequences are insignificant." – added Rei in an almost bored tone.

"**INSIGNIFICANT? YOU DAMNED BITCH!**" – hollered Tōji as he charged at the bandaged girl. Shinji had an urge to stop the fighting because of her injuries but it quickly proved unnecessary as Rei merely sidestepped then brutally elbowed the boy in the kidney.

As Tōji tripped with a pained yelp, Rei's hand snaked onto his throat and to the astonishment of Shinji, the smaller girl lifted the much bigger boy high enough that his legs no longer touched the ground. – "I am not concerned with collateral damage." – she stated with a whisper. – "Your sister is the one responsible for her own injuries as she did not follow civil defense protocols. Attempting to shift perceived blame onto others is foolish and cowardly. I advise you to desist, for I will not be so indulgent in the future." – With that, she drew him closer then suddenly lobbed him into the wall twenty meters behind him with such a force that his impact removed some plaster. After gazing at the coughing boy for a few seconds, Rei walked off without even looking at Shinji.

For her part, Shinji eventually got up from where she was dropped by Tōji and went over to the still coughing boy. – "You okay?"

"Yeah... I'm good." – he wheezed as he got up with the girl's assistance. – "That little-"

"Hey, there's no point to it now. Just get up and walk it off."

"Right... okay. Thanks." – He sent a long, probing look at her. – "You're all right, girl."

Shinji scowled. – "I have a name."

"Oh, yeah... Shinji, was it?" – She nodded. – "Mine's Suzuhara. How 'bout some explanations?"

"About?"

"Like, your name. Everyone's been wondering."

"Like I said, I'd wish it wasn't the case." – She sighed. – "Alright. I don't know why she doesn't like the fact but we're sisters."

"Really?" – he asked, surprised.

"Yup. I only moved into the city recently so I haven't really seen her. Hell, I didn't even know she existed!"

Tōji winced. – "That sucks."

"Way to state the obvious... but you know what? I'd have left long ago if I wanted to."

"Then why didn't you?"

"Look at her. If there's another attack, do you think she can fight like that?" – Shinji saw Tōji was about to interrupt so she held her hand up. – "I know, she's not a nice person. But I'm not a killer, got it? I'm better than that bastard father of ours who'd send us both to our deaths without a second thought."

"How 'bout your mother?"

"Died long ago and that bastard threw me out right afterwards without a word."

A long silence ensued. – "You know what? I thought my life was bad but compared to yours? I think I'll shut up." – remarked Tōji. – "One more thing: you said you and Ikari are sisters? Are you gals twins?

"Nah, I'm older."

"How does that work?"

"...like I said, it's a long story and I'm not even supposed to tell. Anyway..." – she got up. – "Mind giving me a tour or something?"

"Sure."


	4. Chapter 4

_Next chapter. I've nailed down about half of the basic plot already._

_Unrelated: Rebuild 3.0 coming in late 2012, YAY! Those who didn't see the new teaser yet must hightail it to Youtube really fucking quick 'cause Anno outdid himself again. That, or he hacked into my laptop and read my notes for Ascension's third season._

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 04<br>BERSERK/RAGE**_  
><em>

* * *

><p>"Say, Shinji..." – asked Kensuke in school one day.<p>

"Hmm?"

"Why are you wearing that uniform anyway?"

Shinji shrugged in response. – "I like this one much better."

"But how? Shouldn't you be wearing _that_?" – the boy asked as he pointed towards Hikari who was busily working with something at her desk.

The girl snorted. – "Forget it. I'm not wearing a skirt, period. Besides, a _seifuku_ sticks out like a sore thumb. She didn't like it but I pointed out that since I'm still wearing one of this school's uniforms _and_ there's no regulation against a girl wearing a boy's uniform, I'm not _technically_ violating the dress code." – she remarked with a snide grin. In case the principal didn't share her way of thinking, Shinji knew he knew who's her father and was fully prepared to use that fact for a bluff. It was a bratty way of thinking but she believed the bastard deserved to be used for trivial things like that.

"Well..." – Kensuke looked below her neckline. – "You really don't have anything to grab attention with."

Tōji swiftly knocked him on the head. – "Dumbass!"

"What?" – shrieked Kensuke while clutching his head.

"Ya don't comment negatively on a girl's tits!"

"Like you're one to talk. You're doing that to the class rep all the time!"

The bigger boy swiftly turned a shade redder. – "S-shaddap!" – he yelled and gave out another punch.

Shinji silently observed the commotion then remarked. – "You've got a thing on her, aren't you?"

Tōji instantly spluttered. – "What da hell are you yappin' at?"

"The class rep. And from your reaction to what he said, it's not platonic. Am I right?" – she let loose the piercing question. Now it was completely impossible to mistake the heavy blush on his face for anything else. He just spluttered and stuttered but didn't give a straight answer – "Well?" – she asked one more time with a thin smile as she already knew the answer.

"...maybe..." – came the barely audible answer.

"Whoahwhoahwhoah! What do we have here?" – jeered Kensuke, only for the other two to share a look then simultaneously clonk him in the head. – "OW! What the f-?"

Shinji instantly interrupted him. – "You'd better not complete that sentence." – she warned as Hikari sent a sour look behind her, straight at Kensuke. The girl was **really** stringent on swearing, as Tōji found out the hard way before Shinji arrived. Shinji herself almost never swore as she had to be **really** pissed first – something her father found out the hard way as well.

"Yeah!" – continued Tōji who swiftly grabbed the opportunity to change topic. – "Besides, remember the rules." – After Shinji got into Tōji's good grace and was introduced to Kensuke, the three set up a few ground rules among themselves: no making comments on anyone's preferences in men or women (at their look, Shinji's only reaction was a polite remark that she's straight, thank you very much), no dating Shinji, no trying to hook her up with anyone, no making sexual comments on her body, no trying to peek into her shirt, no asking Shinji to become a willing participant of Kensuke's voyeur photo operation (she was quite miffed at the operation's mere existence but eventually agreed to turn a blind eye as long as they don't discuss it in earshot of her)... the list went on for a while.

Kensuke was about to reply when the teacher came in and Hikari immediately sprang into action. Shinji rolled her eyes at yet another pointless 'rise-bow-sit' routine but there wasn't anything she could do about it.

Half an hour later, Shinji couldn't decide if the teacher was assigned to this very class by her father as a way to spite her or not. This wasn't simply boring; this was slow torture. The teacher droned on and on, in a tone that would've made even a sniper fall asleep in under a minute. Most of what he said was various things about what life was like before Second Impact, something which didn't strike Shinji's fancy in the least. When he did say something else, it was either some part of the event's cover-up or something she already knew from elementary school.

Like the geological consequences of the Impact itself.

All the massive floods were obvious signs of the Antarctic ice sheet's melting but it took the scientists a few more years until they realized that Second Impact didn't stop at simply altering the climate by raising the ocean levels, therefore flooding areas and slightly increasing the Earth's overall surface albedo. The energetic event also affected the internal parts, so to speak; as a result, the planet became tectonically unstable. Minor earthquakes were a common daily occurrence and every single volcano that was at least moderately active prior to Second Impact are now permanently erupting all across the globe.

While the technology to build earthquake-resistant structures already existed, tsunami defense was a bit more problematic. The officials investigating possible courses of action wisely realized that no matter how strong those buildings are, nothing is perfectly safe. This viewpoint was infamously demonstrated in 2009 when the European plate spontaneously perforated under the North Sea and the British Channel, causing a series of tremors with strength never seen before and a devastating megatsunami that washed up the Thames and virtually wiped London off the map with an eight-figure death toll. Since there was no fault line anywhere near, the area was naturally considered earthquake-safe. Emphasis on 'was'.

After the Sundering of the North Sea – as the catastrophe came to be called –, the AAN started a radically new project aimed at securing humanity's future at the only place known to be safe from all cataclysms of tectonic origin – the high seas. Under the auspice of Project Atlantis, enormous floating cities were constructed of which Tokyo-3 was the first. Despite widespread political protest, all floating cities were declared to be independent non-governmental entities as long as they stay in international waters.

Of course, the logistics of such a project were nearly inconceivable at first, resulting in the decision that an expert system was needed to manage these aquatic behemoths. Thus came into being the Avalon System, the most advanced supercomputer to date. Each floating city was outfitted with a trio of these, enabling them to be completely self-sufficient. Just as Tokyo-3 was the first, it also came with the first Avalon to be completed; legendary AI researcher Naoko Akagi brought in all the best programmers for the task, which was known to the public. What was known only to a select few however is that some of these programmers were actually Scions who felt it their obligation to help their Natural brethren in their hour of need. Due to their intricate neural connection to their machines, Scions have a deeper understanding of computers than anyone who ever learned it from a book.

It would be an obvious question to those in the know of the secrets of the Biometal Wars: if they had the technology, why didn't the AAN simply evacuate everyone offworld? The answer was simple: logistics. Despite the massive confusion and devastation just after the Impact halving the planet's population, three billion is simply too many to relocate in any reasonable timeframe. Additionally, the ISDF's overall offworld presence only amounted to a few thousand at most; they lacked any and all facilities to maintain a larger population.

Shinji's near-sleeping mind was suddenly awoken by her cell vibrating in her pocket. Quietly retrieving it after making sure Hikari wasn't looking in her direction, she found a text message from an unknown source. It was merely two sentences long but chilled the girl to the bone.

**INCOMING ANGEL – RECALL ORDER**

'_Oh, darn...'_ she thought, seconds before the school bell sounded in perfect synch with the civil defense sirens. Then she heard the city's PA system coming to life with its automated voice. – "_**Attention, all residents. The Tokyo-3 Board of Directors has declared Civil Defense Condition... Level 2... in accordance with public safety protocols. Please proceed to your designated shelters and stand by until announcement of Civil Defense Condition... Level 3... or lower. Thank you.**_"

* * *

><p>"What is the Angel's current location?" – asked the Bastard King himself from his raised platform.<p>

"Sector 16, sir. It crossed the city's edge moments ago and the ISDF is throwing everything they have at it." – replied Maya without looking away from her console. She knew from experience that Gendo Ikari didn't care for trivialities like eye contact; she saw him without glasses only once but his gaze was colder than liquid nitrogen. As Tōji would put it, '_it creeped me the fuck out_'.

"Irrelevant. They do not have the means to defeat an Angel." – announced the man as if he was stating the most obvious thing in the world.

His companion, the Sub-Commander, took over instead. – "It's only a matter of time before they ask for our intervention."

"With respect, commanders..." – Misato remarked. – "I would've launched Unit-01 even without their request."

Fuyutsuki was about to scold her when the Commander interrupted him. – "Captain Katsuragi is correct. While NERV is not part of the regular ISDF forces, they would make us take the blame if their men die due to our inaction." – He turned towards the woman. – "Proceed."

"Yes, sir." – She stepped to Maya's side. – "What's the status of Unit-01's pilot?"

"Suited up and ready to go in a few minutes. Unit-01 is being prepared for launch."

"Give me a direct channel to her as soon as she's in."

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

><p>Shinji looked up at the swarm of technicians that were around her Evangelion disconnecting diagnostic cables and sealing panels all around the armor. The front of the torso and the thighs were currently wide open, showing the cavity where she was supposed to go in a few moments.<p>

She looked down at herself. The pilot suit they've given her had much to be desired: it was uncomfortably tight and a hard ridge ran across her spine, pressing into her flesh almost painfully; she was told the ridge was the neural interface that aided her movements by detecting electrical activity in her spinal cord. It was a necessity because without the interface, she would be forced to give out motor commands via motion capture and raw muscle power even though a teenage girl doesn't have nearly enough physical endurance for that kind of sustained activity. She did ask Ritsuko for any kind of alternative but the only one they offered was a set of permanent external jacks implanted onto her back via surgery; Shinji naturally refused as while she wasn't particularly concerned about her own beauty, she didn't want to end up like a Matrix-wannabe either. The only positive part of her pilot suit was that despite the tightness, it wasn't body-hugging; she didn't want to be ogled like a bondage fetish.

The technicians finally stepped back and Shinji realized it was her cue. Ignoring their looks, she climbed onto the Evangelion and turned around, navigating her feet into the receptacles where they were supposed to go before sitting into the cavity and leaning back as she was taught. Immediately several metallic harnesses snapped over her body, firmly securing it to the machine before the thighs then the torso sealed.

At this point Shinji realized she had passed the point of no return and adrenaline started having its obvious effect. The suit finally closed the helmet as well, plunging her into darkness. – "**ACCESS.**" – she heard the suit's computer say before she felt a small tremor and something cold started rising from her feet. Remembering her training, she resisted the urge to squirm and waited until the liquid reached her chin before exhaling as deep as she could go... then submerging her mouth and taking a huge lungful of the foul-tasting material.

Immediately she started fighting the urge to cough and vomit as her body's natural reflexes tried to expel the liquid. It wasn't easy; her first tries during the various tests she was forced to do were mostly failures until Ritsuko decided to expedite the process and retrieved a syringe with a needle so long the mere sight of it freaked Shinji out... and that was before two orderlies propped her mouth open as the doctor injected the muscle relaxant directly into the back of her throat. Shinji couldn't swallow for quite a while but it worked as her body no longer had the means to repulse the liquid. While the woman later apologized for the rough treatment, Shinji remained suspicious around her ever since.

As for the liquid itself, Ritsuko explained that it had a dual purpose as oxygen supply and shock dampener. Upon hearing that it was called LCL, Shinji mentally made the connection with what she heard during her first time meeting the woman and concluded that the injection system in Rei's Evangelion is what malfunctioned and didn't fill the suit, resulting in the younger girl being thrown around inside like a ragdoll. The fact that Rei still won and took her Evangelion back to the facility before the pain of her injuries overwhelmed her served as a testament to her inhuman strength. That and her altercation with Tōji sent a clear message to Shinji: her sister was not to be trifled with.

Inside Unit-01, Shinji finally defeated her body's reflexes but was on the verge of having a panic attack after the full weight of the situation hit her. _'What the hell am I doing? I agreed to do this so that __**she**__ won't have to but couldn't have those damn things waited until she was back at the job? I don't want to die yet! Sure, I had that training and all but possession does __**NOT**__ imply mastery!'_

"_Shinji, can you hear me?_" – she realized Misato was talking to her through the radio.

"Y-yeah. I'm here." – she replied, trying to hide the shaken tone of her voice. There's no way she was going to show weakness in front of her bastard of a father.

"_Alright, from the looks of it you are going to be deployed soon. Now, don't be worried;_" – '_I __**am**__ worried!_' the girl silently screamed in her own head. – "_just do what you practiced and everything will be fine._"

"Okay."_ 'Like hell it is!'_

With nothing else to do, Shinji initiated the Evangelion's startup sequence. Lines of white text scrolled over her vision she couldn't make sense of but she felt the control surfaces in the limbs tighten uncomfortably then release as the system measured her dimensions and adjusted itself to her body. – "**SYSTEM START.**" – the computer intoned in its feminine electronic voice as the readouts were replaced by her HUD. A half-circle appeared on the lower right corner of her vision was filled up with a green and blue quarter from both ends, the two colors meeting in the middle. A white **100** appeared next to the green bar while three names listed themselves next to the blue one.

On the lower left corner, a red half-circle read **100** and another four names were listed next to it. Finally, a cursor following her eye movements appeared and **HOVER OFF** was written on the top of the HUD for a few seconds before it disappeared.

Shinji continued to fret silently for a few more minutes until Misato's voice came again. – "_Alright, we have launch authorization."_ – Those words sounded to the girl like a judge announcing a death sentence for her. – "_We didn't practice catapult launches in the simulations but Ritsuko told me you'll do it fine. Stand by; we're launching you in ten seconds._"

"That soon?"

"_We don't have time. Launch in five... four... three... two... one... NOW!_" – Shinji felt a brutally powerful throw on her Evangelion and was pressed downwards with a force that actually hurt. Her feet felt sandwiched against the feet containers and she was having trouble keeping her eyes open... until she realized that they _were_ fully open; she still found she couldn't see as her thoughts jumbled into a dreamlike mess before the pressure ceased by a powerful jolt.

Distantly, she heard Maya's voice as if the tech was talking from the bottom of an ocean. – "_Doctor, the pilot's biometric readings are-_"

Misato's angry yelling cut in. – "_Ritsuko, are you a sadist or what? You almost gave that poor girl a G-LOC!_"

Then her most hated voice came. – "_It appears you have overestimated the Third Child's g-force resistance, doctor Akagi. See that it does not happen again; I do not wish to waste time on finding another spare._"

"_Yes, sir._" – the blonde replied without the slightest sign of remorse.

Shinji felt her blood boil at that. _'Spare? Is that all I am to you?'_ She tried shaking off the haze but it gave way very slowly; her eyes started seeing some light but no shapes or anything. Still, she was really pissed to the point where her doomful thoughts all but disappeared, replaced by a single drive: to prove that smug bastard wrong.

First however, she needed to get some bearings on her situation. _'Alright, what do we have here? One: I'm expected to go into real combat with no help. Two: I can barely see because of someone else's screwup. Three: my superiors have zero motivation to see me return alive. Summary: situation's really screwed up.'_ With that summed up, Shinji discovered that she regained enough vision to see her HUD somewhat. According to the topographical radar, her target was around three streets away, slowly moving parallel to her position. Therefore, Shinji drew a deep breath and started trekking.

* * *

><p>In the command center, Fuyutsuki turned to his superior. – "Ikari, are you certain about this?"<p>

Beneath his gloves, the corners of the man's mouth drew into a cold smirk.

* * *

><p>When Shinji finally caught up with her target and spotted it, she had difficulty describing it. The long, purplish body was covered in smooth, leathery skin without hair or anything else she could've used to scale it. When the... <em>thing<em> turned around, it revealed a wider top section she guessed was a head of some kind, although the lack of eyes or orifices was quite unsettling. The middle section had six pairs of rib-like bony appendages that opened and closed in a waving motion around a red sphere somewhat identical to the previous one she saw being eliminated by Rei.

As soon as the creature spotted her (at least she thought it did; the lack of eyes made it kinda hard to tell what it was looking at), two tentacles unfolded from the sides of its body into what looked like a pair of whips. _'Whips...? What is this thing, some kind of domina?'_ She hurriedly dismissed that line of thought; it wouldn't do to be distracted when her life was on the line.

"_Shinji, are you ready?_" – came Misato's question over the radio.

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." – the girl murmured.

"_Then you have a go. We're counting on you._"

'_Yeah, right.'_ the girl snorted in her head. _'More like: [Number of persons counting on me] = [Number of personnel on the bridge - N], with N being a positive whole number greater or equal to 2. She's still treating me like a kid but I'm not that naïve to think they might actually care about a random teenager just because I happen to be HIS daughter. In fact, I think the exact opposite is the one that's true here.'_

With that taken care of, she launched a mortar shell at the Angel with the expected result: it bounced off the energy field – AT-field, Shinji recalled – that suddenly materialized between the two combatants. Therefore, Shinji decided to use the trump card which she was told would still work. – "Weapon." – she said twice and her weapon display scrolled onto the third item on the list: **HORNET RKT**. She heard the missile rack on her Evangelion's left shoulder hum to life and a yellow bracket appeared around the HUD's crosshairs.

That was another piece of ISDF technology built into the Evangelion: the variable weapon hardpoints. She was told that this specific weapon, the Thermal Hornet, was a large rocket with a high-explosive payload and an active infrared tracking system. However, a small modification was fitted into the weapon: some of the explosive payload was stripped out in favor of an anti-AT field generator that gave it AT-field piercing capabilities at the cost of smaller explosive power. Shinji naturally asked why didn't they use it against the previous Angel and received the answer that since the Angel came out of the ocean, its infrared signature was too low for the weapon to lock on, hence why Rei used an Image Shadower missile which locked onto the target's visual image (it was considered as a back-up weapon as the Angels' size meant the weapon locked on quickly and never lost track) and contained about as much payload as a man-portable RPG.

For her part, Shinji remembered the various rockets and missiles that could be installed into the rack as best as she could and recalled that knowledge as the eye-tracking mechanism read her command and centered the bracket on the approaching Angel's red core. – "Okay, here goes..." – she whispered as the bracket turned red. – "_nothing!_" – she yelled as she fired.

Outside, the missile rack erupted as a thick column of fire and smoke launched at the Angel. As expected, the AT-field sprang up again but all it did was stopping the rocket for a few seconds before it pierced through and flew towards the core...

...only to veer off-target and hit one of the glowing tentacles instead. A large explosion and a splatter of blood was followed by the Angel's shrill screech as the now black tentacle flopped onto the ground as if it was made of rubber.

"Eh... oops." – Shinji murmured in surprise as she remembered one more thing Misato said about the Hornet: using it carefully around multiple targets as it tends to go after the hottest one.

Seems like whatever makes those tentacles glow, it also makes them hot.

_Very hot_, as her quick switch of the Evangelion's visual sensors into false-color IR showed – the severed appendage was cooling quickly but the still-attached one's temperature was over a thousand Kelvins.

Then that white line moved upward. Shinji switched back to visual mode and her eyes went wide. – "Ah, shit!" – At her hurried command, the Evangelion leapt to the side just as the remaining tentacle hit the pavement, punching a crater into it and sending a massive spray of debris and partially molten asphalt all around.

Shinji tried scrambling the Evangelion to its feet as quickly as she could but the Angel was faster: it whipped the road next to her again, sending her flying from the shockwave. As soon as it landed, Shinji glanced at the HUD's lower right corner, near her weapon display. – "Hull integrity's 89%... and it didn't even hit me directly!" – she said to herself in disbelief. Her earlier panic quickly came back with a vengeance as she wildly fired the dual autocannon on her right wrist, even after the first bullets bounced off the Angel's AT-field.

She quickly rolled out of the way as the Angel tried to pancake her into the ground again but avoided it only just barely. _'Ohshitohshitohshit!'_ her mind was running. _'Okay, think, Shinji, THINK. What did Rei do to win that fight? First, blinded that Angel; this one doesn't even have eyes! Second, avoided its attacks; I didn't even learn how to use the hover system yet! Third, destroyed the core; I don't have a freakin' huge hammer! Okay, what do I have? Minigun: won't do squat. Mortar: ditto. Hornet...'_ She tried locking on but was interrupted when she once again flew in the air against her will. _'...I can't ask that thing to stay still, am I? I'm so damn __**SCREWED!**__'_ she screamed silently.

The torture – because it couldn't really be called a battle – went the same way for a few minutes: the Angel's swipes throwing the Evangelion around like a ragdoll as Shinji had gone from worried to absolutely terrified. _'I'm gonna die in this thing! Why the hell did I even agreed to do this? What the __**FUCK**__ was I thinking?'_

Her HUD's damage indicator was now in the red. – "**WARNING.**" – the suit's HUD intoned in its monotonous female voice. – "**DAMAGE CRITICAL.**"

"_You're not helping!_" – screamed Shinji in panic as another swipe was aimed at her. She tried another futile attempt at dodging... but the Evangelion refused to move. – "Oh, not now...!" – She yanked hard on the controls but the display suddenly froze up and a large red **SYSTEM ERROR** message appeared. There was no way to dodge that tentacle now; it was going to hit her directly. _'Ohhshiiii...!'_

Then she felt her arms move and her hands were suddenly grabbing a blistering heat that made her cry out in pain. In a few moments, the heat ceased but the pain only abated slowly. Shinji had no idea what happened but the Evangelion was still unresponsive.

Then she felt _it_.

An unexplainable feeling, as if she wasn't alone inside the machine. She felt every cell, every fiber of her being scrutinized by _something_ and foreign thoughts filled her terrified mind. She felt boundless rage the like of which she never felt before in herself, burning hate against everything and everyone.

Especially itself.

At the same time, a strange sensation made itself known on her face. It was as if a hand caressed her cheeks. Almost inaudibly, she heard a whispering voice. – "_Mitsuketa... Watashi no..._"

Then the Evangelion started moving on its own.

Nevertheless, Shinji was really freaked out by this point. – "What... what's going on?"

The machine's fingers twitched and the hands slowly balled into fists and released a few times before it slowly and jerkily got onto its feet. A warm ripple ran across her left forearm as the Evangelion's entire arm suddenly went unnaturally stiff. Since the visual display was still out, Shinji felt rather than saw the Evangelion's head tilt up to look at where she thought the Angel would be...

...and a guttural, metallic roar sounded from the machine before Shinji felt herself being launched at the Angel. From them on, all she felt was the Evangelion being randomly jerked by the struggling Angel and her hands tearing into something that gave way with a wet tearing sound.

After what seemed like an eternity, the movement finally stopped and the frozen viewscreen shut down just as Shinji heard the same voice whispering to her. – "_Shinpai shinaide... watashi no aisuru..._" – Just a few seconds later, lines of white text started scrolling and Shinji realized the Evangelion was rebooting.

When the visuals reestablished, Shinji later wished they wouldn't have.

Everything was drenched in blood and bits of flesh, the sheer quantity of which made the normally impassive girl nauseous. The Evangelion was standing on a huge pile of unidentifiable viscera which nearly pushed her to throwing up inside the machine. As she slowly and fearfully looked around, a shop window on the street caught her attention.

The Evangelion's reflection stood motionlessly, blood dripping from every nook and crevice. The left forearm was gone, replaced by a long blade that reached nearly to the ground, its silvery gleam reflecting sunlight in all its colors. The Evangelion's head was also changed: instead of the samurai-like helmet, the frontal section morphed into a metallic imitation of a human skull, a pair of empty eyesockets crowning a sadistic, toothy grin. If Kensuke were to see it, he would've compared it to a Terminator.

Shinji's pupils shrank to the size of pinheads and the girl's throat erupted into a shrill scream.

* * *

><p>"Evangelion retrieval complete." – reported Maya about half an hour later. She was still a bit pale after the rampage Unit-01 performed against what used to be the Angel.<p>

"Status?" – asked Gendō tonelessly.

"No internal damage occurred but the EDD armor was on the brink of failure. Ammunition supplies are at 76%."

"And the pilot?" – asked Misato.

"Medical examination reveals no injuries, but..." – the tech hesitated.

"But what?"

"...you'd better see." – Maya brought up a video file Misato recognized was security camera footage. The captions indicated it was taken in Unit-01's storage bay.

On the video, the technicians were trying to extract a struggling and screaming Shinji from the Evangelion. The girl was completely unlike her normal self: she completely ignored any requests or orders from the technicians and as soon as she was free, she knocked over two workers as she fled into the furthest corner and curled up into a ball, refusing to communicate with anyone until two men forcibly dragged her out of the bay at which point she became completely passive and allowed herself to be hauled away to the infirmary.

"What could've possibly made her behave like this?" – wondered Maya quietly.

"That is irrelevant." – boomed Gendō's voice. – "Continue your work." – he added as he stood up and left the room with Fuyutsuki in tow.

Misato looked after the man in disdain before whispering to Maya. – "I don't know..." – she glared at Ritsuko's back who was working on the other side of the deck. – "...but I'm going to get answers whether she likes it or not."


	5. Chapter 5

_Man, am I lucky to have finished this chapter today! While I was having some R&R at home last week, my dorm was abruptly shut down and everyone was evicted. Naturally, I wasn't told (*sigh* as always...) and had no idea until I arrived to a barren dorm this night. Tomorrow, there's no chance in hell I'd be able to write as things are gonna be pretty hectic._

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 05<br>JEALOUS/ANGER**

* * *

><p>"Based on our current knowledge of her fighting capabilities and her recent change in psychological state, Pilot Ikari is clearly unsuitable for prolonged combat assignments. Therefore, I request for her discharge from duty at the earliest possible opportunity." – finished Misato her report to Commander Ikari in the latter's cavernous office. The man was sitting on his throne as usual while Fuyutsuki was staring through the reinforced, wall-sized porthole opposite of the entrance.<p>

"Denied." – Gendo grunted from behind his folded hands. – "She will remain on the combat roster until further notice."

Misato was surprised at the immediate answer but didn't show it. – "May I ask why?"

"You may not. Until Rei is back to full health, Unit-01 is our only chance at keeping the Angels at bay."

"What if Rei recovers?"

"I will not have only one combat-capable Evangelion when I could have two." – replied Gendo simply.

"And what about Soryu?" – pressed Misato.

Fuyutsuki spoke up without averting his gaze from the inky depths outside. – "We are conducting negotiations with Germany as of now. Unit-02 will be transferred to Tokyo-3 in three weeks, not a day sooner."

"Indeed. My point still stands however; I will not have only two combat-capable Evangelions when I could have three."

Misato's eyes narrowed. – "You said you would let her go."

"You forget, colonel, that I am her father. I know her well enough to say with absolute certainty that she will not leave on her own. Do you have anything else to say?"

Misato struggled to find any holes in her superior's train of thought but failed. – "...no, sir."

"Dismissed."

"Yes, sir." – She saluted then turned on her heels and walked out.

As soon as the door closed behind Misato, Fuyutsuki turned slightly to Gendo. – "Are you sure she will stay?"

"Shinji is too much like her to leave at this point. She will want to see it through to the end, even if she does not realize it yet."

The older man turned towards the window again. – "Indeed... Yui was terribly stubborn as well."

* * *

><p><em>One week earlier<em>

The normally empty storage room's calmth was disturbed when the automated door slid open and two women entered, one practically shoving the other inside.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Misato turned to her companion. – "Alright, Ritsuko... I want answers and I want them **NOW**." – she growled in a dangerous voice.

The blonde straightened her lab coat with an irritated glance. – "That's not really specific..."

All that remark achieved was setting off Misato completely. – "_Don't toy with me!_ Everyone saw what Unit-01 did yesterday so don't try to play stupid! That thing _slowly and methodically dismembered the Angel into pieces smaller than itself, all the while grinning like crazy_! There's just **no way** a teenage girl would do that! And what about the shapeshifting?" – She buried her face into her palm. – "God, I can't believe it... how could you people have been so callous to put that girl into _an actual Fury?_"

"Evangelions are not Furies-" – Ritsuko tried to protest but Misato beat her to it.

"Well, it sure as hell behaved like one! What the hell did you guys built?"

"We made exactly what the ISDF asked for: a humanoid weapon platform made of biometal."

Misato shook her head. – "Bullshit, they would never authorize **this**!"

Ritsuko's eyes narrowed. – "For your information, shapeshifting is not to spec so I don't know what happened either. Believe what you want but I wouldn't recommend you to dig yourself too deep into this. Now, if you have any further complaints, direct them at Commander Ikari." – she warned before trying to leave.

Once again, Misato would have none of it; she grabbed the other woman's shoulder. – "Why are you doing this? The Ritsuko Akagi I knew from college had something we call _morality_. What happened to it? Did the Commander put you up to this?"

An unreadable expression appeared on the scientist's face. – "Morality is relative, Misato. One cannot define it without a frame of reference." – With that, she casually yanked her shoulder out of Misato's grasp and walked out.

Misato looked at the closed door for nearly a minute before she kicked it with a frustrated yell. She was back to square one with no answers and her primary target now suspicious of her intentions. There was some truth in the meager answers she received, however. _'If they didn't put it in themselves, where did that shapeshifting come from? Scion tanks have morphing technology and we already use stasis shields in the Evangelions. Yes, that would make sense; Scions are experts with using biometal in unconventional ways. But she still said it's not to spec...'_ Realization came across her face. _'Of course! The internal workings of the Evangelions are so highly classified not even I know about them. Evangelions do have morphing tech in them but she couldn't tell me directly without breaking confidentiality, so she __**specifically**__ denied it __**before**__ I even asked. Smart girl.'_

* * *

><p>"How is she?" – asked Misato quietly from the doctor. The two of them were standing outside Shinji's room in the medical wing.<p>

"Aside from the bruises caused by the neural interface, she hasn't suffered any injuries. The psychological trauma however..." – he trailed off.

"How bad is it?"

"Better than yesterday. She hasn't said a word but proved cooperative so we stopped giving her tranquilizers for the time being. She didn't have any seizures or more panic attacks either but we're keeping her under 24-hour surveillance nonetheless. Commander's orders."

That surprised Misato. – "Did he say why?"

"No. We only received an order to keep her in a piloting condition regardless of all other considerations."

The surprise instantly changed into annoyance. _'I knew he was a bastard but this goes beyond my expectations.'_

The man shrugged. – "Well... we weren't ordered to quarantine her so it should be fine. However, try not to antagonize or upset her too much. She just recovered from a major panic attack."

"I know that, doctor. I'm partially responsible for it, after all..." – Misato murmured before slowly pushing in the door.

Shinji was lying motionlessly on her back as if sleeping. Her eyes however were open, emptily staring at the ceiling above her bed. She barely even blinked; that was the only sign she was even alive.

Misato slowly approached the bed and carefully sat on the edge. – "Hey..." – she whispered to the girl. – "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." – came the flat, toneless reply. Misato didn't know what to say to that so she just sat there. The silence was drawn out for minutes until Shinji spoke again, without looking at the older woman. – "Did you come here to gawk or you have something to say?"

"The doctors said you're fine so I'll ask for your release."

The girl stayed sill for what looked like an eternity until she suddenly sat up and let her legs down at the edge of the bed. – "Finally. I don't want to stay in here any more than absolutely necessary."

* * *

><p>Misato was quite worried at Shinji's profound silence and moping. One, maybe two days would've been normal but over a week? She finally decided to try and do something about it while bathing one night but something else came to her mind as well. – "Oh, damn... hey Shinji, can I ask you a favor?" – she called out.<p>

"What is it?"

"Rei just got her security card renewed. Doctor Akagi asked me to give it to her but I forgot. Could you do it for me tomorrow, please?"

"Maybe." – came the grunting reply.

"Thanks! You're a real angel!"

After bath, Misato fished out the card from her bag and gave it to Shinji. At the girl's still-present moping, she added – "Hey, stop moping all the time. If you frown all the time, your face will stay like this. How are you going to find a husband with that?" – she cooed with a grin.

"I'm not really in the mood for jokes." – snapped Shinji at her.

"Still, you really should smile once in a while. After what happened last week-" – she cut herself off, silently cursing herself for even bringing up the topic.

Shinji looked down at the table. – "...I don't want to talk about it. I don't even want to _think_ about it or I feel I'll freak out again." – she mumbled after a while.

Misato walked up to the girl and hugged her from behind. – "It's okay, you don't have to." – she whispered.

"...thanks."

Later on, after Shinji had gone to bed, Misato was sprawling over the living room's sofa with her trusty Beer Brother in one hand. _'She's been putting up a mask the whole time... but I don't blame her. What she saw would've scared witless even an adult. Under that hard exterior, she's just a teenage girl with no idea what's going on.'_ She was quite reminded of herself in that as she took a swig. _'On the other hand, I think Ritsuko is underestimating her.'_

* * *

><p>The next day, Shinji silently cursed Misato as she was walking towards where Rei was supposed to live. It would seem the older woman's forgetfulness was contagious, as Shinji too forgot to deliver the security card to its owner until after Rei had already left school.<p>

Therefore, only one option remained: asking Hikari for Rei's address. Shinji wasn't stupid enough to overlook the fact that as her sister, Rei probably lives with their father who currently happens to be Shinji's #1 most hated person in the world. That alone wasn't a problem, as Shinji overheard enough chatter at NERV to know that the man almost never left the facility. She briefly fantasized about how hilarious it would be if the whole facility were to be 'accidentally' detached from the bottom of the city, sending the man quite literally sleeping with the fishes. Wistful thinking however wasn't getting her anywhere.

Her expectations were, to put it simply, massively overshooting reality.

The address was just another standard-template apartment building, nothing fancy or unusual. For the highest-ranking officer of a military research facility, it was way too conservative. Shinji wasn't naïve enough to think the man would be holding back his quite high salary for spending it on charities and crap like that; she didn't particularly care about his spending habits either but it was a bit suspicious.

She couldn't however miss the black van parked at the other side of the street. _'Grunts, huh? I bet they packed the whole building with bugs as well.'_ She casually looked at the rooftops and saw a very faint reflection in a top-floor window overlooking the building's front side. _'Snipers, too? Jeez, is he this paranoid of someone breaking into his lair?'_ she thought as she shook her head and went for the front entrance. She knew that her presence was probably reported to Gendo by now but she also knew that trying to sneak in would most likely provoke the sniper.

And Shinji had no intention of dying until showing her father that the age-old saying of 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' also applies to abandoning your daughter, not just to cheating on one's wife.

Inside, she received another surprise as the interior wasn't the bastion of cleanliness either. _'Although it does make some sense: people are less likely to notice anything unusual. Plus it might be easier to hide those bugs in the grime; that would need for the janitor to be an insider as well or no janitor at all.'_ The elevator wasn't working either so she took to the stairs.

It took her a while to reach the third floor as she looked for the apartment holding her target. From what she gathered from Hikari, Rei wasn't a member of any clubs at school; no one ever saw her outside schooltime either. Therefore, Shinji concluded the younger girl must be at home right now... on the other side of the door she stopped at. First, she put her ear to the door but didn't hear anything; no TV, nothing. The mailbox was overflowing with leaflets and other junk so she decided against just dumping the card in there and leaving; Rei most likely didn't empty it. Therefore, she rang the doorbell... or to be more exact, would have rang it had the thing were in working order. But judging from the continued silence, it wasn't.

Next, she rapped on the door – once again, to no effect. She was about to just give up and leave when a small thought entered her head. _'Door locks that have a handle on both sides are easier to pick because you don't have to hold the locking mechanism in the open position. He must have known this as well. Therefore, why is he guarding the building if he's not living here anyway?'_

She pressed down the handle and the door obediently creaked open.

'_Answer: because his violent daughter doesn't lock the door behind herself.'_

She found herself in probably the dirtiest apartment she had seen in her life. It looked like no one cleaned in here for years. With apparently no one inside, she wasn't going to just stand there gawking so she walked inside. All she saw was a single room with two beds. _'At least they're not sleeping together; that would be real creepy.'_ The smaller bed in the corner looked recently used but the large one was practically new. _'Three guesses as to which one belongs to whom. Where is she, anyway?'_ Shinji decided to just drop the card on the small counter in the bedroom and leave; she was about to do just that when something on the counter caught her eye.

It was a large switchblade with a polished wooden handle, something obviously not of this age. It looked well-maintained, although she was not an expert on the matter. Curiously flipping the weapon open, she idly held the blade towards the window and saw not a single speck marring its surface. She was about to put it back down and leave when an invisible force violently tore it out of her hand. At the same time, suffocating pressure clamped around her neck and yanked her to the center of the room.

Shinji reflexively grasped at her neck... and felt nothing but thin air. Still, something was holding her up by the throat and holding her high enough that her feet vainly kicked at the air while trying to find something to step on; she idly noted the switchblade was also floating in the air where she left it. Then the force spun her around and violently bashed her against a wall so hard she would've spat out every bit of air left in her lungs were it not for the force suffocating her.

"That does not belong to you." – Rei remarked darkly as she stalked into the room with only a towel draped around her neck. Ignoring Shinji's predicament of being pinned to the wall in a crucifixion pose, the other girl casually snatched the switchblade from the air and after inspecting it, she carefully placed it back to the counter. Only then she turned to Shinji. – "You are not welcome here."

'_Yeah... I noticed._' Shinji tried to say but it remained as a thought in her head as she couldn't speak with the unsubstantial vice around her throat. For the same reason, she couldn't explain the reason behind her presence as her head was starting to feel light from the lack of air. Then she felt the fingers of a foreign presence probing her mind and Misato's request popped up with crystal clarity, as if she was experiencing it now. Right after it faded away, Rei looked at the counter. – "I see." – she remarked and the force holding Shinji disappeared.

The older girl immediately tumbled to the floor, wheezing as her body finally regained access to life-sustaining air. While she was trying to regain her bearings, she looked at Rei who was still giving her a death glare. From the towel, she guessed Rei just got out of the shower but it wasn't the nudity that grabbed her attention. She saw the other girl bandaged and arm in a sling just a week ago but now, there wasn't a single scar, bruise or unnatural bump anywhere on that body; just smooth, pale skin.

And something else, too: apparently, the accelerated growth wasn't applied to just her height but to other sizes as well. Shinji gained enough comparison samples from PE to get an approximate average for her classmates' chest sizes but Rei's partially covered mounds with the pair of pale pink nipples peeking out at the towel's edge clearly reached _**way**_ above that. And not just that: Shinji herself had barely started to sprout (unlike her ex-roommate who overtook her by nearly a year) but Rei was evidently approaching adulthood below as well. _'No freakin' way that's a ten year old... Hell, she looks sixteen!'_ Now she understood why their father kept Rei privately tutored; any elementary school would've noticed the physical changes which would've raised uncomfortable questions from the other girls.

Her attention returned to Rei's face when the other girl started speaking. – "I am told your mental capacity is above human average; therefore, I presume you are capable of comprehending my words. You are not allowed to come to this place again."

'_What the hell does that supposed to mean?_' Shinji tried to say but her throat still wasn't cooperating.

"I do not need to explain myself. It is not a wish; it is a warning. Approach this place again and you shall perish by my hand."

"Why are you so much of an ass to me?" – Shinji finally managed to say, although it barely came out as a whisper.

Nevertheless, his words clearly reached their recipient who narrowed her eyes. – "I will never acknowledge you. I am the daughter of Gendo Ikari; his _only_ daughter. If you try to take him away from me, there is no force in the universe that will save you." – she growled darkly.

"What the hell are you talking about? That's the last thing I would do!" – retorted Shinji, now in a normal voice.

"I am not interested in excuses or justifications. This exchange is over; now leave." – With that, Rei turned on her heels and started dressing. Shinji decided it wouldn't do her any good if she were to try and antagonize her sister any more, so she dusted herself off and walked home without a word.

'_I reiterate my previous opinion: she is damn creepy._' Shinji looked up at the sky. _'Creepy, my ass... she's like a panther: sleek, attractive exterior hiding a cold-blooded killer beneath._ Those guards aren't supposed to keep intruders out of the **apartment**. They're supposed to keep intruders away from **her**._'_

* * *

><p>"Did you give Rei her security card?" – inquired Ritsuko casually as she and Misato had their short coffee break in the NERV cafeteria. Two of the room's four walls were taken up by reinforced glass walls that showed the underside of Tokyo-3 to anyone who cared to look; it was a sight unknown to the civilian population above but still considered insignificant to the NERV leadership as the cafeteria was nearly at the base of the upside-down cone that formed the facility. As one went lower, levels got increasingly higher security until Level-EEE at the tip of the cone where not even Misato was allowed to trespass, despite technically being the third highest ranking person in the whole installation.<p>

Misato made an embarrassed smile. – "About that... well..."

"Let me guess: you forgot. _Again_." – At Misato's sheepish laughter, she groaned. – "I can't believe it... how many times did I tell you to buy a calendar?"

"Hey, I'm not that bad! Anyway, I asked Shinji to do it for me."

She fully expected the blonde to calm down but she achieved the exact opposite. – "**WHAT, ARE YOU INSANE?**" – screamed Ritsuko at the top of her lungs, attracting the attention of nearly everyone in the cafeteria.

"What?"

"Do you have **ANY** idea how much danger you just put her in?"

"What are you so pissed about? I know Rei doesn't like her and all, but-"

"But nothing! You know how Rei looks at the Commander, right?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Then how do you think she would react to someone who's technically her equal going **RIGHT TO THE COMMANDER'S PLACE?**"

Misato pondered on it for a while before her face turned deathly pale. – "Oh, shit." – She immediately scrambled for her cell phone, punching in Shinji's number in record time. – "Shinji, are you there?" – she shouted into the device as soon as it indicated a connection.

"_Hey, no need to yell at me. I'm not deaf._" – came Shinji's indignant response, to which Misato let out a relieved breath.

"Uh, look. I arranged something so you don't need to deliver Rei's card, OK? Just... go home and forget it."

"_Actually, I'm just coming from there._"

A sharp intake of breath. – "And...?"

"'_And' what? I gave her the card and she threw me out. I knew she wasn't exactly going to thank me but still._" – the girl replied, mumbling the last part to herself.


	6. Chapter 6

_Oh, boy. I'm really sorry about the nine week delay, I completely forgot updating this._

_I wrote this in one night so its quality might not be as good as previous chapters. On the other hand, I'm now having proper chapter titles and have retroactively updated the previous ones as well. For some reason the site won't accept anything other than alphanumeric characters in chapter titles so I'll have to write the titles into the chapters themselves.  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 06<br>WARNING/LETTER  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"What do you think, will she wake up before I leave this time?" – quipped Shinji to Pen-Pen as they were having their respective breakfasts.<p>

The penguin merely gave her a look that she guessed meant 'I have no idea' before returning to his bowl of fish; living on a floating city that had to export most foodstuff from the mainland meant that seafood was noticeably cheaper than everything else. And as Shinji already discovered, Misato was a cheapskate when it came to anything other than the contents of her fridge.

Said woman chose this moment to waddle out of her room. – "Mmnhng..." – she croaked.

Shinji raised an eyebrow. – "Morning..."

The woman didn't answer but dragged herself to the fridge and extracted a can of beer before retreating to the table and throwing herself down onto a chair. Still without words, she opened the beer and instantly guzzled the whole can in five seconds. – "_**YEEEEAAAH!**_" – she hollered, now fully awake. – "There's no better way to begin a morning, I tell you!"

Shinji shared a '_no comment..._' look with Pen-Pen. – "You do realize you're not supposed to do that in front of me, right?" – she asked deadpan. – "Wrong example and all that."

"Ooooh, isn't someone acting all serious?" – cooed Misato with a grin.

Shinji sighed in exasperation, partially from her guardian's attitude and partially from the stench of alcohol she could feel even from this distance. – "Leave me alone. I'm not stupid enough to think imitating an adult would make me one. A few more years under my sleeve will do just as well." – She took a sip from her own drink before continuing. – "Why didn't you hire soldiers to pilot the Evas, anyway? I'm sure they could do much better than us."

Misato shrugged. – "Ritsuko said it's much easier to train a specialist from scratch than to retrain someone with an entirely different skillset, or something like that."

"Still, why not adults? What NERV is doing right now is child labor, you know."

"That reminds me..." – Misato announced as she put the can down with a serious expression. – "You breached confidentiality by telling your entire class about the Evas."

Much to her surprise however, Shinji merely leaned back in her chair, resting her head on her forearms. – "Bluff."

"It's not. The commander is thinking about taking disciplinary action."

"He's bluffing." – the girl dismissed her again. – "Remember that non-disclosure agreement you had me sign? I read it down to the fine print and it only covered surrendering information either of your own volition or under duress; confirming or denying specific questions wasn't mentioned at all. Therefore, I didn't do anything explicitly forbidden by the rules." – she pointed out.

Misato was floored with incredulity. – "You actually read all that?"

Shinji smirked victoriously. – "Naturally. Or did my father expect me to dismiss it as useless so that he can back me into a corner on a technicality? 'Know thy enemy' isn't mere paranoia; cutting off your enemy's angles of attack is sometimes more effective than going on the offensive yourself. And besides, it might give me my own angle of attack."

'_She's her father's daughter alright...'_ The woman then realized what Shinji just said. – "Hold on, what did you mean by 'specific questions'?"

"It's not like I jumped out in front of the class and said 'hey everyone, I'm the pilot of the most badass powered armor this side of Starship Troopers'! Someone _specifically_ asked me if I was the pilot. I'm not naïve enough to think it was a coincidence; there's an information leak in NERV." – she pointed out with seriousness.

"What if someone in your class was a witness of the battle?" – argued Misato.

Shinji shook her head. – "I thought about that too but then I realized: Unit-00 and I were there at the same time so if someone saw the Eva, they should've seen me outside of it too. Therefore, there was no way for them to deduce I was a pilot if they acquired that information first-hand. It's logical then to propose that they got the info from a third party." – She paused. – "Or maybe..."

"Maybe what?"

"...someone in the class complained his little sister was caught in rubble then tried to give me a knuckle sandwich. It is possible that she told him and he in turn asked me with someone else arranging the leak to make me seen responsible for it."

"Who is this boy?" – asked Misato experimentally.

Shinji however spotted the trap instantly and evaded it. – "Someone I'm going to question today."

Before Misato could press the issue, the doorbell rang. – "Well, that's my cue." – quipped Shinji as she stood up and hefted her schoolbag. – "See you later."

* * *

><p>"Thanks for getting me out of that one." – Shinji sighed as she finally got out of sight from the apartment building.<p>

"Why, what's up?" – asked Tōji, not understanding.

Shinji subtly looked around before whispering. – "She's been trying to press me for info. I can't talk about it here, we're under surveillance."

"Whaddya mean?"

"NERV Internal Security. Three plainclothes guys, they're watching me 24/7."

"Jeez..."

"That's not all. They've got snipers watching the apartment and the school. Remember that time you tried to beat me up?"

"Yeah." – he grunted.

"Rei's the only reason you walked away from that day alive and not in a body bag to be thrown into the ocean. You've been labeled a 'security risk' so they're watching you too."

The boy turned several shades paler. – "Shiiit... how da hell do ya know 'dis?"

Shinji grinned. – "I don't. At least that's what they think; you have no idea how talkative some people are if they think you're not listening."

"Daamn... you've got one helluva protective old man!"

The grin instantly disappeared. – "Don't even mention him. If it weren't for me piloting one of his precious Evas, I bet his only reaction to having my gangraped corpse nailed to his door would be to call someone to clean up the vandalism." – At Tōji opening his mouth to protest, Shinji raised a hand. – "Don't try to convince me otherwise, you'd be just wasting your breath. I hate that bastard and I wish he would just die and disappear from my life for good. Couldn't we talk about something else?"

He shrugged. – "Shoot."

Shinji kept silent for nearly a minute before continuing. – "I didn't want to bring this up so far, but... how's your sister?"

Tōji shook his head. – "Not much better. Da docs say her legs are busted so she'll be lame for da rest of her life, even with them crutches and leg braces." – he mumbled.

"Isn't there something else? Surgery or anything?"

"No way to pay for it."

"Sorry."

Tōji held a hand up. – "Don't. Ya don't have anything to do with it and there's no way I'd lay a finger on yer sister."

"Because you know she'd kick your ass?" – asked Shinji with a smirk.

"Nah, she's a girl. Hitting one ain't the way of a man!" – he protested.

"What about me? I told you I don't mind." – she pointed out.

"We're buddies. Don't piss me off and I won't hit ya."

"Got it. Anyway, is Kensuke coming to school today?"

"I think so, why?"

* * *

><p>"Were you the one who asked that question on my first day here?" – Shinji demanded at a loud enough voice to get her state of mind across but not loud enough to draw attention from anyone else.<p>

Kensuke immediately backed into his desk. – "I, uh..." – he squealed in surprise.

"How did you know?" – she pressed, already knowing the answer.

"Well, um..." – he fidgeted NERVously. – "My father works in the technical crew, he's been telling me this and that... I hope he's not in trouble for it."

Shinji sighed. _'You have no idea...'_"Wait here." – she said before walking over to Hikari's desk. – "Class rep, do they have envelopes somewhere in school?"

"Yes, why?" – the girl asked.

"It's not urgent but I need one before school ends. It's vital and I don't need it to confess to someone either." – she stated calmly but inside, she was repeating _'don't notice, don't notice, don't notice...'_

"Really? Because that denial was quite specific." – pointed Hikari out with a smile.

'_Damn, she noticed!'_"That's because I had a hunch that would be the very first reason you would think of." – Shinji shot back. – "Besides, I barely know anyone yet and I don't believe in love at first sight so who would I give a love letter to?"

* * *

><p>Kensuke was sweating profusely when Shinji came back and sat down without a word before pulling out a sheet of paper and starting to write. He couldn't need her talking to know she was none too pleased for some reason.<p>

Once he finally worked up the NERVe to ask her what she was doing, the civil defense sirens started howling outside which sent the entire class into near-panic before Hikari took control of the situation. – "Everyone, assemble for march!" – she barked with authority.

Kensuke looked at Shinji who was apparently completely unaffected by the events around her as she was still writing. – "Oh, damn. I have to-" – he began.

"Wait a sec." – she interrupted as she finished scribbling and folded the paper, slipping it into the unmarked envelope. – "Give this to your father. _Unopened_." – she stressed as she gave him the sealed letter. As she was about to leave however, another thought occurred to him. – "Why did you think it would be funny to have the whole class know?"

"What?" – he stuttered. – "I-I didn't-"

"No lies. Were you the one who routed that message to the whole class?" – the girl demanded.

"I wasn't! I don't even know how to do that!" – the boy protested.

Shinji appeared thoughtful for a moment before nodding. – "Alright. Now go or the class rep will be pissed." – she remarked as she turned to Tōji. – "And you, did your sister tell you about those robot things?"

"...yeah. But I didn't tell anyone, I swear!"

"Good. Keep it that way." – she warned before running off.

* * *

><p>"...we know at this time the Angel is targeting Headquarters." – Shinji heard Misato's voice from the briefing room as she was heading there herself. – "Therefore, I propose to evacuate all personnel prior to the operation and set up a field command post at the northeastern docks. If the Evas fail to stop the Angel in time, I propose to detonate the emergency lockbolts and detach Headquarters from the city."<p>

"Denied." – came Gendō's voice immediately, making Shinji flinch. _'Dang, I really don't want to put up with him now...!'_

"Sir-"

"This is not open to discussion, Captain." – he announced with a tone of finality just as Shinji entered. Rei was already in the room and currently standing unflinchingly next to Gendō like a guard dog.

"...yes, sir." – Misato grumbled, defeated.

"Are we going to deploy?" – butted in Shinji.

"Not yet. Repairing Unit-01 took out a substantial portion of our budget so the AAN refuses to allow Evangelion deployment until proper reconnaissance of the Angel's combat capabilities has been carried out." – announced Gendō.

Shinji shrugged. – "Makes sense... last time you didn't tell me anything and I got my ass kicked."

By this time Misato gathered her thoughts enough to begin briefing the pilots. – "Alright, here's what we have learned so far. The Angel is armed with an unknown energy weapon not unlike our MAG Cannons. The weapon appears to have an unlimited horizontal firing arc and an unknown range; in our experiments, the Angel instantly fired at any hostile within twenty kilometers but also intercepted an incoming cruise missile from beyond visual range so it's entirely possible that the weapon doesn't have an arbitrary maximum range. We've launched drone aircraft against it as well so we know it has an at least 60° vertical firing arc; we couldn't get authorization to launch ballistic missiles for fear of damaging the city so we don't know exactly."

"What kind of firepower are we talking about?" – asked Shinji.

"Enough to instantly vaporize twelve assault tanks standing bumper-to-bumper at the least. Since there's no way for the Evas to withstand that in a direct engagement, we'll have to resort to subterfuge; specifically, we're going to do something called 'Wild Weasel'. And you are the lynchpin of this plan." – the woman said as she pointed at Shinji.

"Me?"

"Ritsuko says a sustained high-energy attack on a single point can probably penetrate the Angel's AT-field. To that end, we're arming your Eva with a modified Flash Cannon. Your task will be to utilize stealth to get as close to the Angel as you can and hit it with a sustained point-blank attack; Ritsuko will give you the details on how to do it."

"You just said if I go anywhere near it, it'll fry me!" – Shinji protested.

Misato smirked. – "Not if we keep it focused on someone else. That's where Rei comes in." – She turned to the so far silent girl. – "You are to execute long-range diversionary attacks against the Angel to get its attention; we're giving Unit-00 long-range shooting equipment. You don't have to do any damage, only keep it distracted."

Rei looked between Shinji and Misato before speaking. – "I have a question."

"What is it?"

The blue-haired girl looked at Shinji with a slight hint of distaste. – "Why am I the decoy?"

"Because once the decoy gets the Angel's attention, she will need to run like hell so you are the logical choice, seeing as you're the better pilot. No offense." – She directed that last part at Shinji.

Rei nodded, apparently satisfied. – "A logical conclusion. Your request is reasonable."

"Are you sure this'll work?" – asked Shinji skeptically.

Misato shrugged. – "Avalon says it might be possible the Angel can't fire straight downwards so if you can get under it without being detected, the day is yours. If it sees you..." – she paused before turning to Gendō. – "Avalon says a single shot from the Angel's weapon at that angle will punch right through the city's superstructure and sink us all to the bottom of the ocean, therefore ruling out a direct attack. On the other hand, we have nothing powerful enough to penetrate that AT-field from long range without needing at least three aircraft carriers to brace it against and that's not counting the power infrastructure. Even if we're right and the Angel has a limited vertical firing arc, we can't drop a Mark 3 on it without damaging the city. Therefore, a stealth operation is our only option. We're going to have to bring the Flash Cannon components in by sea but we can't risk the Angel firing on the cargo so we'll need to borrow a submarine, sir. With our current timetable, we can commence the operation tonight."

Gendō nodded. – "I understand. Captain, you have green light for the operation." – he announced before turning to leave.

"Misato, about the information leak I mentioned-" – Shinji spoke up.

"Sention 2 is investigating the matter." – Gendō interrupted without turning around.

Shinji scowled at the man's back before continuing. – "Listen, I did my own investigation and it really was who I suspected; I took care of that. It might be a wild goose chase but ask Section 2 to look into the log files of the school network anyway, just to be safe."

"Wait a minute, who were you suspecting?" – Misato demanded.

Shinji saw from the corner of her eye that her father paused in the doorway and was obviously listening in. – "The father of one of my classmates, name's Aida. He's working in Evangelion maintenance and occasionally told his son about his work. The boy breaks easily under duress so I decided to handle this one myself before Section 2 gets involved."

That was enough to grab Gendō's attention as he turned around. – "Explain." – he demanded tonelessly as Rei gave Shinji a not-so-subtle death glare.

The girl smirked. – "An anonymous letter, stating that NERV already knows it was him and that he'd better refuse to say another word to anyone or else he'll be considered a spy with all the appropriate measures taken against such infiltrators."

Gendō didn't show any signs of surprise or understanding. – "And if he refuses to heed your warning?"

"If he tries to disappear then we know he's a real spy. On the other hand, the boy denied he was the one who disseminated the information among my class so there's a fourth party involved." – the girl summed up.

"I see." – her father stated simply before leaving with Rei in tow.


	7. Chapter 7

_Next chapter's here. I know last one was sloppy; that's because I was writing in a hurry and just threw it together, sorry. It's just that I'm utterly terrible at writing filler. Plot, battles, I have no problem with those; filler is my weakness._

_I got a little carried away and had to trim a certain section in this chapter – gotta adhere to the T rating. I mean, I have no problems with M-rated fanservice (as the fifth chapter shows) but I have no way of knowing whether my readers share that or not. Truth be told, I have a slightly... **modified** M-rated version uploaded somewhere else (can't say where or they might take it as advertising another site). That version's non-canon as I only wrote it as an experiment whether I can write lime or not._

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 7<br>TEAM / WORK**

* * *

><p>As soon as the locker room's door closed behind her, Shinji paused in her steps before she spun and planted a fist into the locker she just passed. – "<em><strong>Damnit!<strong>_" – she swore. – "Me and my big mouth! I just _had_ to go and show off to that bastard, didn't I? _Waa no..._" – She placed both hands on the locker. – "_**AHŌ!**_" – she screamed as she headbutted the locker with all her strength.

Pausing a while to catch her breath and fight off the pain in her forehead, the girl balled her hands into fists before pushing herself away. Belated she noticed that she accidentally slipped into the dialect she was using for years before fate in the form of a bearded sadist with scary shiny glasses dragged her into this mess. Shinji was a believer of 'live and let live' – that is, she didn't deliberately antagonize anyone unless said person gave her reason to. And what _that person_ (she disputed his right to call himself her father) did to her _generously_ fulfilled that criterion.

She still didn't have a clue why he did it but she wasn't about to brood over it forever. She was here and in control of her own life – that's all that mattered. Right now however she made a grave mistake: she revealed just how sharp her mind was, giving away her main weapon to oppose _that person_ with. That was a major problem as it more than likely made _that person_ suspicious of her, resulting in _that person_ having her watched even more closely. Not to mention a possible retaliation on Kensuke and his family just to spite her... while she wasn't sure _that person_ would be capable of doing that, she didn't want to be proven right.

Shinji temporarily purged these thoughts from her mind as she went to her own locker and started discarding her clothes. As a side effect of the installation being underwater, the corridors were noticeably colder than the buildings topside. While it could easily be rectified by turning the internal heating a bit higher, that was reserved for winter months only to lower operating costs. Shinji learned from experience that she has to redress fast; that experience was now proven as she was having goosebumps even before she glanced around (she still didn't get used to dressing in a locker room) and pulled down her panties, fully exposing her body to the world. Shinji never wore revealing clothes; the boys' school uniform she had was testament to that. Only her roommate ever saw her like this and said roommate was another teenage girl so neither minded. Not that Shinji had much to look at in the first place but she wasn't an exhibitionist either.

After packing the pile of freshly discarded clothes into the locker, she lugged out the heavy G-suit and began the laborous process of putting it on.

* * *

><p>"How are the preparations for Katsuragi's plan proceeding?"<p>

"It will be completed on time." – Fuyutsuki smirked. – "Are you becoming impatient, old friend?"

"All that matters is defeating the Angel as per the scenario dictates. Everything else is secondary."

"Even your daughters?"

Gendo nodded. – "Rei will do everything I ask of her. She will support me to the end."

"And Shinji?" – presented Fuyutsuki the loaded question.

"Sentimentality has clouded her judgment. Nevertheless, I have underestimated her resourcefulness."

"Do you mean the fact that she took action on her own? I did not expect that either." – Fuyutsuki admitted.

Gendo pushed his glasses to their proper place, the light reflecting off the lenses obscuring his eyes. – "It does not matter. I will not allow a petulant child to interfere in the scenario – and neither will you." – The warning was unspoken but clear: 'turn on me and I won't hesitate to put you down'.

It was a warning the older man heard many times when he was forcibly conscripted into the organization for knowing too much. Knowing about the truth behind Second Impact.

The silence lasted for several minutes until Gendo lifted the phone built into his desk and dialled the internal number of Section 2. – "This is Ikari. Allocate priority detail for monitoring Aida. If he shows signs of complicity with a third party, detain and interrogate him then dispose of him."

"_Yes, sir._" – came the curt answer before he killed the connection.

"You're willing to believe her, then?"

"Do not mistake my actions for anything but what they are, professor. If the Committee find out we ignored a whistleblower, they can use it to undermine our position. For the sake of the scenario, we have to appease them until we slit their throats."

* * *

><p>"One hour until sortie, girls." – greeted Misato as she walked into the pilots' ready room. – "How are you two?"<p>

"No problems." – Rei answered curtly, without even turning around.

"Same here." – Shinji added while pointing her thumb at Rei who was currently sitting with her back to Shinji.

Misato looked between the two and mentally shrugged as she realized they likely didn't say a single word to each other since their arrival. – "Good. The Evas are almost ready so be prepared." – she said as she stepped out once again.

Shinji glanced at the girl who was still steadfastly refusing to acknowledge her existence and sighed. – "Look, I know you don't like me. I can't correct that unti-"

"I do not require your approval of my actions." – the other girl cut her off.

Shinji rolled her eyes. – "That's not what I'm trying to say. What I'm saying is, care to at least tell me why?"

"Stay away from father. He is mine and mine alone."

"What do you mean, yours?"

"It does not matter. This is your only warning: stay away from him or I will kill you."

Yet again, Shinji could do nothing but roll her eyes. _'I have no idea how that bastard managed to indoctrinate her so deeply but he did a good job.'_ – "What makes you think I want to have anything to do with him?"

"You are genetically related to him. Therefore, you might believe to have a valid claim to him. "

Shinji risked her chances and asked the question she intended to for a while now. – "Do you even know why he threw me out?"

"I know not. However, he would not have taken this course of action without reason. You must have deserved it."

_That_ had gone way too far; Shinji spun around with full intent of busting in her sister's mouth... only to see Rei having already turned around and extended a palm towards her. – "_Watakushi ni fureru na._ _[Don't touch me.]_" – she warned coldly.

Shinji remembered what happened in the run-down apartment and backed down, although she was still boiling from anger. _'Deserve? What could a four year old possibly do to deserve THAT?'_ she seethed inside.

Fortunately, Misato chose this moment to enter the room. – "Ritsuko says your Evas are ready so-" – She stopped cold when she saw the two girls about to jump each other. – "Did I miss something?"

* * *

><p>"Are you alright?" – Misato asked quietly as she was leading Shinji to Unit-01's hangar.<p>

"Yup." – Shinji answered simply.

Misato was visibly unsatisfied with that answer. Right before they entered the hangar, she pulled the girl aside. – "Look... I know I probably have no right to say this, but... I'm sorry you have to pilot again. I saw how you ended up last time so I thought-"

Shinji saw where she was going and interjected. – "Correct; you really have no right to say that, seeing as you're my superior and could simply order me to do it. But thanks anyway."

Still, the older woman pressed on. – "Just tell me one thing. You knew you could leave at any time and don't have to put up with it any more. Why didn't you?"

Shinji looked to the side. – "I don't know myself. I mean, I don't care about the fate of the world, it sucks anyway." – She shrugged nonchalantly as she broke free of the woman's hold and walked into the hangar but inside, she was asking that very same question from herself.

* * *

><p>The night covered the city like a dark blanket. All buildings stood dark and empty, their occupants evacuated to the city's storm shelters. Normally those shelters would only be used in the event of severe weather but as the city could simply float out of the way of any typhoons, the shelters saw little utility. Now however they were packed to the brim with worried citizens as Avalon ensued a complete news blackout.<p>

Most citizens, especially younger children, were already asleep due to the late time of the day. Possession of outdoor pets was heavily regulated. As such, nothing live was there to see when an inconspicuous garage door opened and Evangelion Unit-01 stepped out of the disguised entrance to NERV.

Inside the machine, Shinji cycled the LCL in her lungs a few times before hailing her superiors. – "This is Unit-01. I'm in position and initializing RED Field." – Another thought was followed by a quiet hum starting up somewhere behind her as her own signal disappeared from radar.

"_Understood, Shinji._" – came Misato's voice. – "_We can't get you any closer than this; you'll have to cross the remaining distance on foot._"

Shinji was about to answer when Ritsuko's voice came through. – "_Shinji, I know Misato went over this plan already but there are some technical data you should know. Your Radar Echo Dampening Field will mask your radar signature; we don't know if the Angel can detect you but keep it on whenever you can, just in case. Use it to get close to the Angel while staying in cover. When you need to leave cover and move where the Angel can see you, use the Phantom VIR system; it will temporarily morph the Evangelion's outer hull to have a negative refractive index, effectively acting as thermo-optical cloaking. Again, we don't know if the Angel can perceive in the visible wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum but it should work._"

Distantly, Shinji heard one of the techs saying they had five minutes until the facility is breached, after which Misato took over once more. – "_Ritsuko, leave the poor kid alone with the technobabble. Shinji, all you need to know is that you can't use both systems at the same time so be smart. If you're using the VIR, get behind concealment before switching to RED. If you're invisible but it notices your presence by radar, keep moving before it pins your exact location down. This is very important: your Evangelion's armor __**can't**__ take even a single hit. We're sending the Angel's location now._" – On cue, a red marker appeared on her HUD, indicating a point five hundred meters behind her. – "_Here..._" – Another marker appeared, this one green. – "_...is the Flash Cannon. It's powered by an umbilical cable connected directly to the city's power plant so don't worry about ammo._"

"_As Misato so eloquently put it,_" – Shinji could hear the scowl in Akagi's voice – "_I'm going to make this quick: the Flash Cannon is a directed energy weapon. Just point and shoot; as long as you hold the trigger, it will keep firing. You need to get beneath the Angel's outer rim and attack from there. There's a good probability it can't fire at that angle and the Flash Cannon can penetrate the AT-field from that distance. Keep the beam focused on a single point and don't stop firing until you reach the core._"

Shinji nodded to herself. – "Grab the Flash Cannon, sneak up to the Angel and roast it from up close. Got it. Where's the core?"

"_Dead center of the Angel. We'll mark it when you get close enough._"

"_I am in position to begin diversionary operations._" – reported Rei from another channel.

"_Alright then._" – acknowledged Misato. – "_Both of you, good hunting. Operation starts __**now!**_"

At that signal, both Evangelions leapt into action. Shinji rounded the corner and started running as fast as she could. She didn't have much time as with the nighttime, the Evangelion couldn't recharge itself with solar power. As a consequence, every action she took drained the capacitors directly; using shields or hover was out of the question.

At the docks, Rei gave a mental order. A resonating hum started emanating from Unit-00 as its hover system activated, compartments on its back and calves opening up to make way for the vernier thrusters that immediately flared to life. The Evangelion rose up into the air before it leaned forward and shot out above the sea. As soon as she gained over a hundred meters from the shore, Rei commanded the Evangelion to turn around before she targeted the Angel's waypoint and sent her missile pod a launch command.

In a few microseconds, the suit transmitted all target data into the bulky rocket before it launched. Quickly activating its onboard terrain-tracking radar, the Comet Cruise Missile soared off into the cityscape and deftly avoided the few buildings in the way before impact... leaving absolutely no damage on the Angel.

The effect was immediate: Ramiel quickly found the source of the attack and retaliated. Rei was prepared for it however and briefly clocked Unit-00's verniers to maximum performance, the thrusters howling as they complied. Unit-00 leapt up high above the air, narrowly avoiding the energy beam targeting its former position which turned the seawater there into a massive steam explosion.

Meanwhile Shinji quickly hefted up the Flash Cannon, making sure she wasn't standing on its cable before running off. _'What am I even doing here?'_ she asked herself silently as she dashed down the street. _'I should just pack and go.'_ She leapt over an abandoned car, the cable abrading the painting and leaving a nasty gash on the vehicle's roof.

'_No one would even care.'_ She rounded a corner and almost came face-to-hull with the Angel; remembering the quick briefing, she turned on the Phantom VIR. A cold sensation enveloped her body in a near-suffocating hug as her Evangelion faded out of the visible spectrum; at the same time, her HUD switched to crude wireframe models of her surroundings as not interacting with incoming light anymore blinded the suit's optical sensors too. That's what the radar-based Sensory Image Terrain Exposing Camera was for. She could still see the Angel through the buildings even before she bounded across the street into cover and switched the cloak back to the RED Field.

'_Katsuragi only pretends that she cares. But I know she sees me as part of her job, nothing more.'_ She dodged into a narrow alley leading in the Angel's general direction. _'Suzuhara and Aida have no idea what I have to go through. I can't honestly expect any sympathy from them.'_

'_Do I even want sympathy from anyone?'_ Just as she finished that thought, she arrived at the end of the alley. Turning on her cloak, she leapt across the street at the same time the Angel fired at what she knew to be Unit-00's position.

Rei didn't have much problem dodging the Angel's potshots as she jettisoned the empty missile launcher early on. There was no need for it as she already had the entity's attention, evidenced by the energy beam she elegantly avoided with an aerial cartwheel.

'_I don't. I'm not going to be an emotional leech.'_ Shinji assured herself as she rounded the last corner and cloaked herself one last time. _'Saving the world from Third Impact... I simply can't feel anything when thinking about it.'_ Just as she was about to cross into the Angel's shadow, a discomforting thought occurred to her that made her falter in her steps.

'_Does that mean I'm a cold-hearted bitch?'_

The warning tone of her Evangelion's low energy supply broke Shinji out of her reverie; she disengaged the cloak and took aim. The Angel instantly noticed something was wrong as it stopped firing. _'__**NO.**__ I am not my father. I will never be like my father.'_ she swore as she swung the Flash Cannon's muzzle towards her would-be victim.

'_**NEVER.**__'_ She depressed the trigger.

In the darkness of the night, the weapon's brightness was almost blinding; Shinji's eyes hurt from looking at it even after she squinted as much as she could without shutting her eyes entirely. Like a giant welding torch, the concentrated plasma stream speared into the Angel's AT-field, struggling against it for several long seconds until the field finally gave out and shattered into a million pieces that immediately faded out of existence.

Shinji almost jumped in surprise when the beam bore deep into the Angel and the entity let out a piercing shriek that sounded uncannily close to a woman's scream. Not letting up, she kept up the assault without wavering in her aim. The hole penetrated into the Angel's underside belched out molten, white-hot slag of what once was its crystalline matter, dripping onto the pavement and instantly melting through it as well.

Then finally the entire Angel shook and released an even louder shriek as its core was vaporized by the intruder, its crystalline body briefly flaring up with the inner brightness of a thousand suns that turned the entire city even brighter than a cloudless midday before the drill on its underside broke off and the Angel crashed onto its side, flattening a building in the way before finally becoming dark and motionless.

As soon as its enemy was dead, Unit-01 dropped the smoking Flash Cannon and stumbled back, wildly clawing at its head. – "Aah, damnit!" – Shinji swore with a painful hiss as she blinked a few times but no luck: her burning eyes stayed blind.

* * *

><p>"So, what's the verdict?" – Shinji grumbled as Ritsuko put away the ophthalmoscope.<p>

"You have a normal pupil reflex and I see no retinal damage so you should regain your eyesight in a few days." – the woman answered while Shinji got off the examination bed. – "In the meantime, you should stay indoors and avoid looking into strong light sources; wearing sunglasses might help too."

"I have some at home." – Misato piped in. – "Don't know whether it will fit her head though."

"Good, then there's nothing more to be said." – With that, the blonde left.

"Go get changed." – ordered Misato. – "I'll take you to the locker room. Once we get home I'll give you that thing. You'd probably want to stay for a few more days until you're back to normal, then-"

"Ah yeah, regarding that... I'll be staying for a while more, I think." – the girl muttered while looking at where she guessed her feet would be.

Misato didn't understand for a moment before she smiled. – "You're staying to pilot, aren't you?"

"Make no mistake; I'm not doing it for anyone but myself." – the girl snapped.

"Why, then?"

"I have my reasons." – Shinji stated simply but didn't elaborate as she allowed Misato to lead her to the locker room. Inside however, she knew the answer now._'__**He**__ abandoned me when I needed him the most. Rei got injured because of me; if I were to leave, it could happen again and it would be because of me. As much as we don't see eye to eye, she's still my sister. If I were to leave now, I'd be abandoning my family and would be no better than __**him**__. Screw that; I'm better than that.'_"While I'm dressing, could you give Rei a message?" – she asked.

"Sure. What do you want me to tell her?"

Shinji remained silent for a while before she started speaking. – "I know you hate me. I know you want me to stay away from _him_; why, I don't know. Anyway, don't worry about that. After what _he_ put me through, I don't want to have anything to do with _him_. Not now, not anytime soon. Get all huggy with _him_ if you want, I couldn't care less. You can keep on hating me if you want; just know that it'll get your message across easier if you also tell why. That's all... I guess."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Answer to anonymous review(s):<strong>_

_rrrr: It's not that she doesn't like girls; she's just naturally suspicious. And about her intelligence: Shinji is the son (or in this case, daughter) of not one but **TWO** of the world's best scientists and not to mention chessmasters. There's just no way he/she wouldn't inherit at least some brains._


	8. Chapter 8

_Hey-yo, everyone! As yesterday was my 21st birthday, **DOUBLE CHAPTER!** Next chapter is about 60% complete and is coming within the week, introducing a certain redhead... Hope you're enjoying the story so far._

* * *

><p><em><strong>CHAPTER 8<br>DOPPEL / GÄNGER**_

* * *

><p>Shinji sighed at yet another boring-as-hell lecture from the old geezer who was supposed to be their teacher yet never did anything but drone on and on about Second Impact.<p>

_Over and over again._

It was irritating like few could believe.

Still, she still found it preferable to risking her life in combat against... what were the Angels, anyway? They always appeared out of nowhere without warning, coming without an apparent purpose. Shinji had no answer to the latter question; as of the former, she had her own theory but as she was no physicist, she had no way of verifying it.

Plus she had a hunch her father wouldn't like her snooping around that topic.

She sighed again as she adjusted her shades. Her eyes were almost back to 20/20 and after she explained the situation to Hikari, the class rep allowed her to leave them on. Less than a week and she could finally dump them; they drew too much attention to her.

Fortunately, Misato didn't go all mother-hen on her as Shinji feared. She didn't like being pitied for such a trivial reason.

Another matter was Kensuke's father.

It appeared her bluff was a success. Shinji didn't know the man but she was satisfied she managed to fix the problem before Section 2 got involved; she didn't want NERV to make an example of him after unknowingly committing an information leak. If he did it knowingly, though... all bets were off and NERV was free to do what they wanted with the dumbass, as far as she was concerned. When it came to morality, Shinji regarded herself as light gray: generally good but not a charity for just anyone. She had better things to do with her life than play the good Samaritanian. She had only gone out of her way this time because a friend of hers was involved.

She didn't even tell Kensuke about the contents of the letter; why bother him? They were friends, true; but at the end, he was completely irrelevant in the larger scheme of things.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Shinji was doing her usual kitchen activities when the door of Misato's room opened. The first thing Shinji noticed was the lack of sleepy groans and yawns from the woman's general direction; the next was the lack of footsteps towards the fridge's beer supply. But it was Pen-Pen's surprised squawk that made her turn around.<p>

Gone was the Misato who had slow and torturous mornings until Beer Mother kickstarted her brain cells. Instead was a crisp and fully awake Misato in dress uniform. – "I'm going to a presentation with Ritsuko today." – she announced as she confidently marched to the entrance corridor to put on her high-heels. – "I'll be coming late so don't wait up for me. Oh, and try not to blow up the house, okay?"

The girl smirked. – "You need to ask?" – she remarked as she laid a finger on her shades and nudged them a bit higher in a gesture almost identical to her father's.

Misato found that thought unendingly disturbing.

* * *

><p>"That concludes my report. If no further complications occur, the Third Child will be combat-ready in two days." – Ritsuko announced in the Commander's office.<p>

"Anything else?" – Gendo asked, mouth hid behind his gloved hands as always.

The woman swapped out the paper in her hand with another. – "I have the results of the Third Child's full physical examination, as you ordered."

"I am listening."

"All values are within acceptable bounds. Blood work is normal, no allergies or autoimmune diseases. Hormone levels are mostly normal, with a slight deficiency in estrogen levels."

"Any consequence we should know about?"

She shrugged. – "None. Regular menstrual cycle, fully intact hymen, no physical signs of the subject being sexually active." – she listed off in a clinical tone. – "She resisted the gynecological exam but only initially."

"Be certain to confirm the first signs of change." – Gendo warned. – "We cannot afford the pilots to involve themselves with anyone. The plan would be negatively hindered by a failed relationship's emotional impact."

"_Could_." – Fuyutsuki corrected.

Gendo slightly turned to look into the eyes of the older man above the upper rim of his glasses. – "We cannot take that gamble. Do not become sentimental on this matter, Fuyutsuki." – He turned back to the woman. – "If you do not have anything else to report, you are dismissed."

* * *

><p>Ritsuko was still thinking about the man's coldness when she and Misato were sitting at the table. No one else was invited so the enormous round table was otherwise empty, the drinks piled in the middle where no one could reach them without climbing onto the table itself.<p>

It was a clear sign of mockery.

Fortunately, Misato managed to temper herself rather than attacking the stash of liquor with a running leap as Ritsuko feared when she saw it. Now the operations director was idly playing with a straw as the representative of their inviter started his spiel to the audience.

Ritsuko only listened to him with one ear as she already knew marketing bullshit when she heard it. This man looked like a typical office rat as well: crisply ironed suit, ugly tie, hair waxed to such extent she could tell every groove left by the comb even from this distance... and that shit-eating expression which infuriated her to no extent.

Therefore, when she raised the microphone to her lips, even Misato perked up. – "Oh, this is gonna be good..."

"Ahem... May I ask a question?"

"Certainly. That is what I am here for, after all."

"The presentational materials claimed the _Seiten NF-01_ operates from an onboard nuclear reactor, is that correct?"

"Indeed. It is designed specifically for extended combat operations."

"Isn't putting such a device on a vehicle designed for frontline combat dangerous?"

The man smirked. – "Better than a weapon system relying on solar power."

"And what about operator safety?"

"The reactor is located in the most heavily armored part of the body to minimize the risk of battle damage. Additionally, the multiple bulkheads between the cockpit and the reactor chamber have heavy-duty radiation shielding. Your concern about the pilot growing a third arm is entirely unfounded." – A wave of chuckling rolled across the gathered audience.

Ritsuko ignored the obvious jab at the fact that nuclear physics wasn't her primary field at the college. – "Let's move onto the next matter at hand. While I understand larger physical size allows for a larger and more varied payload, your proposed design of the _NF-01_ is far too large for practicality. Aside from the more complex and maintenance-hungry propulsion system, it is practically a sitting target for enemy artillery and close air support."

"Oh, the Seiten is far too mobile to be hit by artillery. As for enemy air attacks..." – He spread his arms. – "I believe that is what combined arms operations are for."

"I can't help but think your designers are trying to compensate for something." – Ritsuko jabbed, causing a roar of laughter that visibly made the man pause.

"It is still better than building midgets even a Sabre tank could turn into roadkill!" – he shot back but he already lost: the audience now knew he was trying to make her look ridiculous and stopped taking him seriously.

Ritsuko smirked to herself and launched a full-blown verbal assault. – "That may be the case, but our Evangelions already conducted no less than three live-fire field tests. In contrast, what does _your_ company have to offer? A unit still in the prototype stage and with numerous irresponsible design errors. One of them being the mere concept of a partially automated combat vehicle with biometal as its primary component. I believe you need to read up what happened when the CCA experimented in that very field."

"That is quite amusing, coming from the head scientist of a company engaged in Strain Five research themselves." – the representative remarked. Ritsuko's eyebrows rose a bit but she showed no further reaction. – "And as I hear, you yourselves had problems with getting your midgets to behave." – he stressed as he presented a folder marked TOP SECRET, its contents being grainy but clearly recognizable pictures of a grinning Unit-01 drenched in the Fourth Angel's blood. – "I have to admit, I'm quite envious of NERV. If I had the AAN covering up all my mistakes, I would sleep much better as well!"

Ritsuko sighed. – "I see we can't come to an agreement like responsible adults. Let us see if your toy can live up to your claims in the demonstration. I eagerly await the results." – With that, she sat down amidst a storm of clapping.

The rest of the gathering was the representative trying to salvage some dignity but ultimately walking off the stage in humiliation.

* * *

><p>"Nice going in there, Ritsie." – Misato . – "Showing that smug SOB he's not the top of the world, regardless of what he may think."<p>

"I'm more interested in what he said."

"About Strain Five? Yeah, I noticed it too. He knows about it even though he shouldn't, which means they spied on us." – she reasoned.

Ritsuko held up an index finger. – "Not just that. He said 'coming from a company engaged in S5 research _themselves_', which means they too are doing it. That's two crimes he admitted in a single sentence: unauthorized research and industrial espionage. I believe the AAN will have a few words to them."

"Whoa... you're pretty sharp!" – Misato complimented

Ritsuko just made a non-committal noise. – "That man's an amateur when it comes to oratory."

* * *

><p>The modified hangar separated in the middle, revealing the quadrupedal mecha inside. The torso alone was three times larger than a tank while there was no head at all, only a small cockpit jutting out slightly from the front.<p>

Presently the vehicle was lying on the ground, legs folded and pulled up against its body for easier transportation. Even Ritsuko admitted that was a good idea, although she didn't share that observation with Misato who was looking through her own binoculars.

Then the voice of her verbal victim came through the speakers. – "Please make yourself comfortable. We are starting the demonstration test now."

In the control room, he turned to the technicians. – "Initialize now."

"Roger. Initializing primary coolant system."

"Booting OS in standalone mode. Setting secondary mode to autonomous operation."

"Primary coolant turbines online, reporting normal function. Retracting control rods now."

Outside, outlets on the Seiten's back opened and long rods emerged from the body. – "Control rods have left the active zone. Critical reaction in reactor core confirmed."

"Initializing propulsion system now." – The legs suddenly unfolded themselves and braced against the ground before raising the mecha's bottom above the ground.

"Looks good so far." – the man remarked before giving the final order. – "Begin walk cycle."

"Roger. Begin walk cycle: forward right leg ahead."

"Forward right leg ahead."

* * *

><p>Back at the observation deck, Ritsuko watched the expensive machinery walk a few laps around the test area and looked at her watch. At that moment, the Seiten turned towards the control center, approaching it with the intent to provide a closer look for the audience.<p>

That never happened.

Around three hundred meters from the building, the mecha suddenly stopped. She heard the technicians' confused attempts at determining what was wrong but ignored them; she knew what was going on.

Exactly why research into automated weapons platforms made of biometal was discontinued by the ISDF.

The mecha's entire body shook as it seemingly stretched its back like a cat, slowly starting to move forward in an oddly organic motion. After a few paces, it suddenly broke into a feline-like sprint straight at the control building.

She didn't need to hear the other spectators' alarmed cries nor feel the whole building quaking as the Seiten rapidly scaled the concrete dome then jumped off at the other side, breaking out of the test area.

"That thing is as bad behaved as the guy who made it!" – Misato complained as she looked at the control room, the technicians frantically trying to stop their wayward pet.

Ritsuko for her part quickly pulled out her cell and dialled a number. – "This is Akagi. We have a Fury on the loose in the Old Tokyo metropolitan area. Prepare both Evas for launch, authorization code Beta-2."

* * *

><p>"A Fury? Where the hell did that thing come from?" – Shinji yelled over the loud engines of the transport plane that was currently ferrying the two Evangelions from Tokyo-3 to the Japanese mainland. Rei was there as well, though she was keeping a sizeable distance between herself and everyone else in general.<p>

"Long story." – Misato replied. – "All you need to know is this: that thing is powered by a nuclear reactor so it's unlikely to stop any time soon. As we might have a chance of stopping it without damaging it, the ISDF is asking us to go at it first."

"'Might'?" – Shinji asked skeptically.

"Don't forget, this is a Fury we're dealing with. We have no way to tell how it will react to the Evas. Still, they want us to take a shot at it; if we fail, they'll shoot it apart and clean up any contamination afterwards."

"What's the urgency in dealing with this matter?" – Rei asked almost inaudibly.

Misato looked at Shinji and visibly gulped before answering. – "The Fury... is heading for Iwaki."

Shinji immediately went whiter than snow. – "_**Fuck.**_"

"Exactly. I know it's probably close to your heart as you've been living there for years but don't act without thinking!"

"Easy for you to say!" – Shinji grumbled, visibly shaken.

"I shall deploy on my own." – Rei announced. – "Her emotional bias is clear. There is a high probability she will not be able to perform at peak performance."

"What was that?" – Shinji asked dangerously.

Misato shook her head. – "You'll both go, no excuses. Your objective is to stop that Fury by forcibly SCRAMming its reactor. By that end, one of you has to get on its back and forcibly insert the control rods. I'd do it myself but as I'm not cleared to pilot an Evangelion, I'll have to leave it to you girls."

"I will do it." – Rei replied immediately.

"Fine. Shinji, you'll keep it occupied."

"Got it."

The pilot of the transport plane called out over the intercom. – "Captain, the target is in sight."

* * *

><p>Shinji gritted her teeth as the vibrations of her rapid descent rattled her bones. Ritsuko wrote her Evangelion a quick field patch that decreased the brightness of her HUD in order to spare her recovering eyes.<p>

"Engage v-thrusters, maximum power." – Rei ordered curtly.

"Got it!" – Shinji hissed through gritted teeth. It took her a few seconds but she finally complied just in time to slow her descent to safe levels. The landing was still hard, though.

"Do not tarry." – the younger girl called out again as Unit-00 shot away on its hoverdrives.

"_I know!_" – Shinji shot back and followed her, initially wobbling a bit until she got used to hovering over the ground without falling over. It was a very strange feeling; her body felt like being in a freefall but the automatic attitude control took care of her misguided sense of balance. Ritsuko told her she would never become a good pilot unless she learns to control Unit-01 without the automatics preventing her from falling over.

They caught up to the Fury fairly quickly. Unfortunately, it was already less than a kilometer away from the outskirts of the city. – "Ah, shit!" – Shinji swore with panic when she saw just how close they were. She wasted no time in maneuvering ahead of the Fury and firing a burst onto the empty cockpit. In the meantime, Rei pushed Unit-00's hoverdrives to maximum and leaped onto the back of the Fury.

Immediately the machine started throwing itself left and right, trying to shake her off. Rei held on but not for very long: the Fury leaped as high into the air as it could and suddenly twisted its body into a mid-air barrel roll. Rei was completely unprepared for such a move from an automated opponent and fell off, landing with a loud thud.

Shinji was about to ask if she was alright when Unit-00 suddenly shot out of the dust cloud its landing kicked up, seemingly unharmed. The Fury let out a loud, synthetic roar that resonated inside Shinji's skull before charging like a bull at the small entity who dared violate its personal space, firing its main weapon: a pair of autocannons, each composed of a trio of SP-Stabbers wired to fire sequentially for a rate of fire nearing machine gun levels.

The smaller Evangelion effortlessly dodged the bursts of sabot rounds, elegantly flipping out of the way of the charging beast. Immediately after, Unit-00 pulled a _very_ narrow turn and shot towards the Fury which didn't fully turn around yet. With a snarl, Rei swung her hammer at the Fury. – "_**You shall not pass!**_" – With a thunderous boom, the hammer connected with the Fury's leg. The limb was instantly pulverized, its parts flying everywhere. The Fury stumbled but briefly managed to regain balance on three legs.

Shinji quickly took advantage of its distraction to jump onto the Fury's back.

Then the Fury started limping forward, albeit slowly. Rei growled and with a swing of her thunderhammer destroyed the other frontal leg as well. This finally did it; the Fury fell onto the ground with no way to keep going.

"_Nice one, Rei!_" – Misato complimented over radio. – "_Wait a bit..._" – Shinji heard her talking to someone else. – "_Say __**WHAT?**_"

Shinji winced. '_That definitely didn't sound good.'_

"_Girls, you need to get out of there now! The Fury just shut down its coolant systems and is about to undergo a meltdown! Your Evangelions can protect you from the radiation to some extent but you need to get the hell out of there **NOW!**_"

Shinji went even paler than back on the plane. – "A meltdown...? Here?" – She looked at the city nearby. She read one of her guardians' old civil defense handbooks and knew about the effects of a reactor meltdown; even a reactor this small could contaminate a sizeable area. – "Ah, to hell with this!" – she growled and started running towards the immobile Fury.

It didn't take Misato long to notice her. – "Shinji, what are you doing?"

"What do you think?" – she deadpanned as she quickly scaled the Fury, heading for the control rods.

"Shinji, listen to me! That thing locked out all remote access; we can't reengage the coolant system from here! It's far too late to get a technician team on-site to prevent a meltdown! You can't do anything; just forget it and run!"

Shinji grabbed one of the control rods. – "I can still insert the control rods manually to force a subcriticality!" – she groaned as she started pushing the rod into its socket.

"There's no time for that! Get out of there now! That's an order!" – That was the last thing Shinji heard from Misato before she turned the radio off.

"Come... on, you bastard! Move!" – she sneered. Slowly, the rod gave way and she pushed it into the Fury. – "One down..."

Not a minute later, Shinji was cursing whoever built Unit-01 for not including a forehead wiper. The heat haze around her was starting to make her disoriented; or were it those tiny flashes on her vision? She couldn't tell anymore.

She didn't even notice the radiation warning on her HUD.

It happened without warning. Just as she finished inserting the last control rod, Shinji stepped back and sighed, her lips drawing into a tired smile. It was then that the outer hull of the Fury tore in two and Unit-01 took a faceful of highly radioactive steam, the mere pressure sending the multi-ton armor flying back several meters.

* * *

><p><em>Shinji... watashi no...<em>

Shinji distantly remembered being transported on a stretcher. Misato's panicked face however above her own, yelling words she couldn't hear. Her entire body burnt from sweltering heat, yet at the same time she was so cold she couldn't control her trembling. Wheezing coughs left her painfully dry throat between attacks of dry heaving. Her head pounded from within so hard she couldn't form a single thought.

She slipped in and out of consciousness – for how long, she couldn't tell. Her sense of time completely disappeared; there were distant sounds on the edge of perception but she couldn't grasp them before she faded away once more.

* * *

><p>"I think she's waking up." – the woozy girl heard from somewhere close. This time, she felt strong enough to kick the embrace of unconsciousness away and cracked her eyes open.<p>

Her blurry vision slowly resolved into a hospital room. Misato was sitting nearby, worry evident on her features. – "Shinji, can you hear me?" – the woman asked quietly.

"'m 'ere..." – Shinji croaked, her sore throat launching her into a coughing fit. Misato immediately moved to help her, offering a glass of water the girl downed as soon as she could. It stirred up her insides so much she almost barfed it right back out but ultimately managed to keep it down for now. – "What happened...?"

"Steam explosion." – Ritsuko answered from the door as she walked in. – "Blew you cleanly off the Fury. Unit-01 was so heavily irradiated we barely managed to get you out of it even with everyone in hazmat suits. We didn't even need a Geiger counter to know why you were out cold or why you were soaked in your own vomit and excrements."

Shinji laid her head back onto the pillow. – "How much did I took?"

"Around seven grays; you were pretty much dead on the spot. We had to resuscitate you several times in the past week but it looks like you'll make it through somehow." – She wiped her forehead. – "I have to admit, you are the luckiest person I've ever seen. I don't think anyone of your age ever suffered such a severe radiation exposure since Nagasaki. At this level, even adults have a fifty percent mortality rate _with_ medical care."

"What about Iwaki...?"

Misato smiled. – "They're OK. You didn't completely prevent a meltdown but it wasn't as severe as it could've been. The IAEA(*) is on-site cleaning up the area now but it looks like the contamination didn't reach the city."

Shinji exhaled with a relieved expression. – "Oh, thank God..."

"Thank Unit-01." – Ritsuko corrected. – "If it weren't for the Evangelion, you'd have taken in so many grays you would've died in less than a day. Speaking of which, we had to dispose of your G-suit so as soon as you are out of bed, we're taking body measures for the new one."

The girl rolled her eyes in exasperation. – "Great... anything else?"

"This is just a small advice, not an order. If I were you, I wouldn't try for a child for the next ten years or so – who knows how many rads your ovaries soaked up."

"Don't mind her. She might look like a cold, hard bitch but she means well. Speaking of which... I should be reprimanding you for insubordination right now. You refused and directly went against a direct order from a superior officer; that is a serious offense grounds for a court-martial. But know this: looking back right now, **you** are the one who made the right call. If you were to escape as ordered, the Fury would've gone up with a full meltdown and the whole prefecture would be being evacuated right now." – She lowered her head. – "I almost caused a nuclear catastrophe not seen since Chernobyl...god_damnit_." – she swore before looking back at Shinji. – "I know what I should be doing right now but you know what? Fuck that!"

Shinji weakly grinned at Misato's cheeky summary of her opinions.

"I don't care what anyone says, you are a goddamn _hero_. Get well soon; those two boys have been asking about you."

* * *

><p><em>Note: Iwaki is a real Japanese city north of Tokyo, in the Fukushima prefecture. I decided to make it Shinji's home between Gendo's abandonment and recall of her.<em>

_*International Atomic Energy Agency, a real-life organization overseeing the non-military use of nuclear energy. They report directly to the UN but are not technically a part of it. In this continuity, they've been assimilated by the AAN which expanded their mandate with several additional objectives, the main one being the cleanup of radiologically contaminated areas - this one was put in due to the limited nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan in the wars following Second Impact.  
><em>


	9. Chapter 9

_**CHAPTER 9  
>THIRD  CHILD**_

* * *

><p>Shinji nodded in gratefulness as Misato helped her out of the helicopter. It was her first day out of the hospital since her recent brush with Death but she still felt weak. According to Ritsuko, fatigue was completely normal and will persist for a few days at the least. The girl felt herself lucky for retaining all her body hair; it would've been awkward to show up in class completely bald.<p>

Misato was the one who offered to take her to somewhere interesting when she complained about boredom – where, she didn't say. Shinji was quite surprised when the 'interesting' place turned out to be a full carrier group heading for the floating city.

"So why are we-" – the girl began but she never got the chance to finish that sentence.

"_**SCHNELL, SCHNELL! AUS DEM WEGE!**_"

Shinji didn't even have the time to look before something crashed into her with enough force to make her airborne for a few moments before she painfully landed on her back.

As soon as she could ignore the pain, Shinji opened her eyes and looked at the offender. All she saw at first was a mess of red hair on her chest. That gave away the offender's identity as a person. – "Are you deaf? I said get out of my way!" – the person swore in English just as Shinji became aware of a hand on her left breast. – "Wait a moment..." – she heard as the hand gave her a noticeable squeeze. Then the hair rose up and was replaced with a pair of sky-blue eyes. – "Well, well... what do we have here?" – the person Shinji now knew was male murmured.

Shinji growled and pushed him off her then stopped Misato's attempt to help her up. – "I can do it myself, thank you!" – she growled as dusted herself off – not that there was much dust on an aircraft carrier in the middle of an ocean.

She got a good look at the guy too. It was a boy about her age. Evidently of good physique, he was wearing shorts and a black shirt proclaiming with large red letters that '**KMFDM SUCKS**'. He was currently fetching an overturned skateboard lying nearby and when he stood up, Shinji noticed he was a full head taller than her.

"Why don't you introduce yourself?"

The boy immediately grinned. – "Right away!" – He turned to Shinji. – "It's more than likely you've heard about me already but in case not, open those tiny ears and listen up! One who never falters, never backs down! I am the _wunderkind_ of the world's greatest country, the young titan of a new age! The great Asuka Langley Soryu is **ME!**"

The silence was only broken by Shinji's deadpan "...huh?"

* * *

><p>"I was under the impression you came to reign in the madhouse these two created." – the fleet's admiral growled. Shinji already knew about the source of his foul mood, having already met the person in question. Said person was currently standing nearby, humming to himself; on the numerous stairs leading up to the bridge, the girl felt his eyes roaming on her body. She never did catch him red-handed, though; he always <em>just happened<em> to be looking at something else whenever she looked.

What she didn't know was, the first time she looked away on the flight deck, Asuka looked at the hand he accidentally groped her with and grinned to himself.

"I apologize if he might've upset you. After seeing it myself, I imagine you must be fed up with it by now."

The man let out another growl. – "I am fed up with your whole organization! That expensive toy could've been airlifted by a simple cargo plane but noooo, you _had_ to degrade the AAN Pacific Fleet into a glorified _cargo service_!" – He turned to the boy. – "And you, mister Soryu! How many times must I tell you that you are **NOT** allowed to skateboard on the flight deck?"

Asuka shrugged. – "Hey, I have to occupy myself with something! You won't let me into my Eva anyway so what's the deal?"

The admiral's eyebrow twitched dangerously. – "The 'deal' is that you are disrupting crew operations with your activities! I could consider it sabotage and have you thrown into the brig until we arrive to Tokyo-3, if you wish!"

"I don't believe that's necessary, captain." – came an amused voice from the doorway.

"Heeey! Good timing, bro!" – Asuka called out as Misato did a strangled growl at the smirking man in the doorway.

By this point, the admiral was positively fuming. – "Mister Kaji, I believe I asked you numerous times to stop inviting yourself to the bridge!"

* * *

><p>"Long time no see, eh, Katsuragi?" – the man Shinji presumed was called Kaji remarked later as the four was in the ship's currently empty mess hall.<p>

"What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be in Germany!" – Misato snarled in response. Shinji noted she was in a foul mood ever since this guy showed up; from the way he addressed her, it was obvious they were old acquaintances.

"I'm mister Soryu's guardian, of course. Isn't that right?" – he asked from Asuka with a smirk.

"Damn straight!" – the boy grinned as the two males fist-bumped.

"From what I heard, you took in a kid yourself. I believe that would be her?" – Kaji continued as he glanced in Shinji's direction.

"Why do you even care?"

"So tell me, Katsuragi... are you with anyone?"

Seeing the woman's near-bursting point anger, Shinji narrowed her eyes. – "She's not bringing guys home with her, if that's what you're implying. Even if she would, I wouldn't care anyway." – Her head was already ringing with plenty of alarm bells; something about this man rubbed her the wrong way. She wasn't sure what but one thing was certain: Ryoji Kaji was trouble.

"Pity. I remember during out college days, she was quite the wild one in bed..."

Shinji merely raised an eyebrow at that remark. _'So that's where he knows her from...'_

Asuka on the other hand was laughing so hard he almost fell out of his chair; partially from Kaji's shameless attitude and partially from the interesting shade of red Misato's face became.

Misato couldn't make a single sound for a while, but when she did it wasn't quiet. – "Wh-? **JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU IMPLYING, YOU JERK?**"

"Just ignore him." – remarked Shinji. – "Perverts don't worth getting an aneurysm over."

Asuka retaliated as soon as he caught his breath. – "Misato, what is this bigmouthed _chīsai gaki [lil' brat]_ doing here?"

"Who are you calling little?" – Shinji growled, having understood the insult. She also noted in her mind that Asuka obviously understood spoken Japanese. Even without that assurance, she would automatically presume that was the case before saying something he should not know, just in case. It would not do to presume he can't speak Japanese and say something he actually understands than to presume he can speak Japanese and say something he doesn't actually understand.

Summary: when in doubt, assume worst-case scenario. It worked for her so far.

"You, of course. Who else?" – he stated as if that would be the most obvious thing in the world.

"You'd better shut up if you know what's good for you."

Asuka crossed his arms with a cocky grin. – "Or you'll do what?" – he shot back, obviously enjoying her reaction.

"Alright, that's enough you two!" – Misato warned, using the distraction to calm herself down. – "She's Shinji Ikari, the Third Child and pilot of Unit-01."

He dismissed her with a shrug. – "I know that, I read her profile back in Germany. What I asked was, what is she doing here? Are you trying to set up an _omiai_?"

"You wish!" – the girl seethed. – "I'd sooner impale myself on the _Kusanagi_* than to sleep with you!"

A long silence fell onto the four, finally broken by Asuka. – "...are you a guro fetishist?"

* * *

><p>"So, what do you think of the girl so far?" – Kaji asked as the two males were looking over the ocean. After Shinji jumped onto the table and punched Asuka so hard the boy fell out of his chair, the man figured it would be better to give her some time to cool off. He really wouldn't want to look into the Commander's eyes and explain why did the children came back with bruises... not to mention his <em>other<em> employers.

Then there was the fact that Asuka could easily overpower Shinji in her present state... and he saw in the girl's eyes, mannerism and behavior just how similar she was to her father. Kaji had his doubts she would voluntarily back down from any fight she started herself.

"Boooring... she looks like she could be pushed over by stray wind." – Asuka winced as he touched the bruise on his cheek – man, did that girl punch _hard_.

"Well, she _is_ recovering right now."

Asuka looked at him. – "Recovering of what?"

"Severe radiation poisoning. That nuclear accident in Fukushima, did you hear about it? She was the one who stopped it but didn't get away scot-free, from what I heard."

Asuka harrumphed. – "Pfft... that_ chīsai gaki_? Bullshit. Shouldn't she be having, you know, hair falling out and all that?"

"That doesn't happen on everyone."

"Riiight... how good is she?" – Asuka tried to be as casual as he could but Kaji immediately picked up on his anxiety.

"Nowhere near as good as you." – he assured the boy.

Asuka smirked, his confidence immediately back in place. – "Good. She should know her place. I worked my ass off to get to where I am right now; no way I'm gonna back down for a couple of daddy's girls!" – Not long ago, he almost screamed in annoyance when he was informed about the selection of the Third Child and her identity. It didn't matter in the long run: even if their precious daddy was his superior, they were still just _girls_. Asuka had no idea why would anyone choose them to do a man's job but he was determined to show just why he was in the program as well. Competing with the boss' daughters was more challenging than competing with a pair of nobodies... but Asuka liked challenges.

* * *

><p>After having some fresh air, Shinji was on her way back to the bridge to find Misato when she was suddenly confronted by Asuka. – "Third Child, you are coming with me!" – he announced in a commanding tone that left no room for a 'no'. That was confirmed a moment later when he snatched the girl's wrist and pulled her after himself.<p>

* * *

><p>"I remember I once pissed off the base commander real good. I heard he was about to file a request to NERV HQ asking for my discharge." – the boy said as they left the motorboat ferrying them from the carrier to a cargo vessel.<p>

"And...?"

"I marched into his office and screamed his head off until he gave in. During the next simulation session, I might've gone just a _bit_ too far with my anger. After that, I heard some technicians from the Japanese branch call me 'the real Shinn Asuka'." – He shook his head. – "I don't get it."

Shinji rolled her eyes. _'I bet you wouldn't...'_

* * *

><p>"Here it is! <em>Mein Stolz! [My pride!]<em>" – he announced proudly as he lifted the tarpaulin.

Shinji raised an eyebrow. – "This... it's red?"

Asuka immediately thrust an index finger skyward. – "Red is the color of strength and bravery! It is the central element of my home's glorious flag! _Heil, Einheit Zwei!_"

Shinji sweatdropped. _'What a nutjob...'_ Her train of thought was interrupted when the entire ship shook.

"That didn't sound good." – Asuka remarked as he ran to the edge of the ship.

'_Way to state the obvious, mate.'_ Shinji thought with an eye roll as she followed him.

Whatever caused it, one of the ships was literally snapped in half and rapidly sinking. Right in front of their eyes, another ship was hit by something just under the surface.

Something big – _really_ big. The speed and maneuverability excluded the possibility of a submarine. Or anything man-made, for that matter. – "Just what my day needed... an Angel." – sighed Shinji. She was way beyond the point to be surprised.

Asuka just grinned and ran off. With nothing else to do, Shinji ran after him.

She caught up to him back at Unit-02, just as he was rummaging in a crate near the Eva and pulled out a red G-suit. – "Just in time. I was itching for some real action!" – he remarked as he threw the G-suit to the ground and immediately took off his shirt.

Shinji raised an eyebrow as his shorts came off as well. – "What are you doing?"

"Putting on this damn suit, of course."

"Right here on the deck?" – she interrupted just as he was about to pull down his briefs.

Asuka grinned. – "What, are you afraid of seeing a man's pride up close?" – he said as he laid his hands on his waist, pushing his groin forward ever so slightly.

"I'm not!" – Shinji protested as she turned on her heels and marched away. Her reaction however couldn't hide the slight blush on her face as the only piece of cloth on his body wasn't exactly a loose one. It was only a slight bump at the fly but was more than enough.

Asuka shook his head. – "Jeez... Japanese women are so damn prude!" – he grumbled as he discarded the last piece of his clothing and grabbed the G-suit. While it was a pleasant thought to think about how the girl might've looked like under hers, Asuka forcibly pushed that thought out of his mind as he learned from experience the... _uncomfortability_ of fantasizing with a G-suit on.

* * *

><p>Shinji watched from the motorboat as another ship went up. She was intent on going right back to the carrier, before the Angel finds her.<p>

The smooth, grey body that emerged from the waves was so large even Shinji lost her cool for a moment.

That is, until the large radar array bounced off it.

Unit-02 swiftly zoomed between the boat and the Angel, firing unguided rockets at it while sidestepping. – "Heeere, fishy-fishy!" – Asuka taunted as the Evangelion made a 'come hither' gesture.

The Angel complied quickly, its mouth wide-open as it charged at the Evangelion. At the last second, Unit-02's v-thrusters howled and the Evangelion leapt high into the air above the Angel. – "_Meteor..._" – Asuka called as he fell towards the Angel, fist drawn back. Shinji noted a compartment on the forearm opening and extending a pair of wicked-looking serrated blades that extended well beyond the fist. – "_**PUNCH!**_" – he screamed right before impact, thrusting his fist at the Angel. Right as the blades penetrated the Angel's thick skin, the muzzle on the wrist flared to life. – "_Das zu essen, du hässlicher arschloch! [Eat that, you ugly asshole!]_"

Shinji immediately noticed it didn't fire like Unit-01's minigun: it fired three large blasts instead of a pulsating light, each blowing a massive hole into the Angel's flesh. It was as if the Evangelion fired a large shotgun from point-blank range.

The Angel shrieked and tried throwing him off, twisting and tossing itself as it soared across the surface at speeds more usual from old fighter jets; Unit-02 however was firmly grabbing at the Angel's exposed flesh with one hand, the other extended skyward. – "Yahoo!" – Asuka hollered in delight as he rode the rabidly twisting Angel like a bull.

"What the hell are you playing at? Just kill it already!" – yelled Shinji angrily.

"Aw, come on! Can't I have some fun over here? _Ollé!_" – The Angel finally succeeded in dislodging him, only for Asuka to execute a mid-air flip and land on the water feet-first, v-thrusters keeping him afloat. – "Hehehee, that was awesome!" – Asuka gushed with an ear-to-ear grin.

"Watch out!" – Shinji warned as she saw the Angel turn around for another pass.

"What for? This guy's not-" – Asuka started to boast, only to be caught from behind.

Shinji facepalmed. – "_Orokamono... [Dumbass...]_"

Halfway inside the Angel's mouth, Asuka gritted his teeth as he tried to get his bearings. Good news was, Unit-02 narrowly avoided being impaled and was only sandwiched between two teeth; its pressure seal was still intact. Bad news was, the Angel's bite was so strong he could hear the Evangelion's armor slowly dent from the force. If he didn't do anything soon, the pressure seal would crack and not only would the LCL start to leak, he would take in water and drown inside the armor. – "Not... a... chance!" – he growled as he braced his Evangelion's hands against the Angel's jaws and pushed with all his might. Slowly, the Angel's mouth opened and he looked up... to see the Angel's core right at the back of its throat. Asuka's mouth formed into a borderline sadistical smirk. – "Your luck just ran out, big guy... _Finishing Move: __**EXTERMINATUS BARRAGE!**_" – The missile pod on Unit-02's shoulder fired up and launched a huge salvo of missiles straight into the Angel's core, instantly pulverizing it.

The Angel spasmed... and sunk headfirst, taking Unit-02 with it into the depths.

Shinji shook her head in annoyance. – "Wait for it." – she murmured to herself.

Five seconds later, Unit-02 erupted from the waves and skid across the ocean in a victory pose, its external speakers blaring loud rock music. Shinji herself wasn't surprised at Unit-02's survival. She reasoned that since Evas were intended to operate on other planets, they must have an airtight seal; if so, they can go underwater as well. After discussing with Kensuke how hoverdrives work, she also knew that one could be used for underwater propulsion by orienting the v-thrusters in the opposite direction. – "Oh yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about! _Werfen Sie einen Vorgeschmack auf meine persönliche Endlösung! [Have a taste of my own personal Final Solution!]_" – came Asuka's voice. Shinji refrained from commenting as no one could seriously expect an everyday Japanese teenage girl to speak German.

After arriving to the carrier and personally assuring a worried-sick Misato that she wasn't fish food, Shinji heard the woman mutter – "Dear God, what kind of a child did that idiot raise?"

* * *

><p>"So, what do you think?" – Misato asked as she and Shinji were watching Asuka being extracted from Unit-02. The dented plates made it hard to coax the chestplate to come off, forcing the crew to listen to the pilot's incessant bragging about the battle all the while. Misato wasn't really bothered by it as she already received an earful from the admiral when Asuka "borrowed" the radar array of the cargo ship for throwing at the Angel.<p>

The girl shrugged. – "Honestly? An antisocial berserker and a crazy _gaijin_ are not exactly my first choice of teammates. Is there a psychological requirement I don't know of to become an Evangelion pilot or what?" - She however couldn't _wait_ to see the idiot try to hit on Rei...

* * *

><p><em>I apologize if male!Asuka's personalization seems shallow; we just haven't gotten to the good part yet.<em>

_ *Mythical sword and allegedly one of the Imperial Japanese royal regalia (there's no way to tell if it's the real deal or not). According to Shinto legends, the storm god Susanowo gave it to sun goddess Amaterasu as apology for a past grievance after retrieving it from the corpse of a dragon. I figured Shinji would be familiar with the myth; Asuka however isn't as why would a German teenager know about Japanese legends?  
><em>


	10. Chapter 10

_Man, I really didn't update this for over a month and a half? I really have no excuse for this._

_I did some number-crunching and realized I'm actually ahead of schedule in terms of chapter numbers. Originally I aimed for 26 chapters but now it looks like I'll go well into the thirties. This is quite a surprise for me as while writing Ascension, I always felt I was going too fast. On another note, anyone interested in a Gundam 00/To Aru Majutsu no Index crossover?  
><em>

_Ah, whatever; I'm pretty sure no one's particularly interested in my ramblings so on with the chapter._

* * *

><p><em><strong>CHAPTER 10<br>DOUBLE /** **TAKE**  
>(part 1)<em>

* * *

><p>Shinji rolled her eyes in annoyance as yet another group of girls surrounded Asuka. It seemed as if every girl in the damn school was fawning after the redhead ever since his arrival a week ago.<p>

It wasn't jealousy she felt or anything like that. Rather, she suspected the girls didn't know everything about his personality.

There was simply no way a sane person would behave like he did. While he was undeniably good (Shinji still found herself on the bottom of the list during synch tests), his experience was wasted on showing off and generally not taking anything seriously.

It annoyed her to no end.

The only thing that made her feel somewhat better was Misato's treatment of the boy. The older woman didn't approve of his behavior either. Even that man who escorted Asuka couldn't avoid Misato's wrath: Shinji once overheard the two having a heated exchange about Asuka's upbringing. The man immediately got Shinji's full attention when he talked about 'circumstances' and 'influence' about Asuka; Shinji decided to investigate those later. For now, she was occupied with what happened earlier.

She made some calculations after the last Angel battle. The Pacific Ocean the city was currently floating on is 165.2 million square kilometers wide, holding 622 million cubic kilometers of water. The chance of any object being in a specific square kilometer is 0.000000605327%; the chance of TWO objects being within the same square kilometer has more zeroes ahead of it than the number of fingers the girl had on her hands and feet. In other words, astronomically small.

So then how could an aquatic Angel be in the exact same square kilometer as the carrier group transporting an Evangelion?

From where Shinji looked at it, it was definitely more than a coincidence. That Angel _knew_ where the fleet was, just like how earlier ones always found the city.

The question is: how?

Answer: there was something on the ship and in the city the Angels could track.

By extension, that answered Shinji's earlier suspicion about her presence on the fleet. Logic dictated NERV should keep all Evangelions combat-ready at all times which ran counter to her permission to accompany Misato without her Evangelion. Which meant the higher-ups knew that the Angel can track whatever was on the ship.

Shinji had two theories about the bait. Either it was Unit-02... or something else entirely.

If any ordinary people were to read Shinji's mind, they would certainly believe the girl was paranoid with a side-order of conspiracy theorist. She wouldn't exactly call herself paranoid; it was just precaution and foresight.

* * *

><p>"So... what do you think?"<p>

As soon as the hand touched her shoulder, Rei snapped. She grabbed the offending limb and yanked it hard enough to send the boy flying over her head, the wrist immediately dislocating with an audible crack. He didn't even have time to cry out in pain before he landed... but immediately afterward he couldn't make any sounds anymore as her heel came down on the exposed stomach.

While the boy tried to get back up with wheezing coughs, Rei could barely suppress the smirk that tugged on the corner of her mouth.

It didn't matter who or why; an inner, primal part of her greatly enjoyed the pain and suffering of others. It was the same part that felt just like home inside an Evangelion and the same part that made her opponents suffer before killing them.

Indeed, Rei had faint signs of being a sadist.

It wasn't something she picked up during the years. She was always like this: if someone offended her, she didn't yell at them or demand an apology. She simply slugged them just hard enough to avoid permanent injuries but at the same time cause as much pain as possible. Over time, people learned to avoid her which was fine; she didn't like crowds anyway.

In fact, it would be easier to list the things she DID like as that list would be infinitely shorter. She snapped very easily at trivial things people would just shrug at and ignore. Rei however wasn't ordinary. Her father knew this as well and avoided angering her whenever possible... not that she could ever be angry at him. For everyone else, there was one emotion Rei felt all the time: anger.

Pure, unbridled fury.

It wasn't directed at anyone in particular. She didn't have a reason to feel anger, yet she did anyway. It was another thing she was born with and got used to: being angry all the time. Anger management was a concept unknown to Rei.

There were, as expected, things that made her even angrier than normal. Such as someone wasting her time.

"Shit... that's gonna bruise..." – Asuka wheezed as he hauled himself up, wincing as his dislocated wrist positively _screamed_ with pain. – "Jeez, I only asked to be buddies, you didn't have to hit me..."

"I am not interested." – she stated before leaving, the crowd of onlookers quickly parting for her in fear. This was something that helped her calm down somewhat as it meant she didn't have to brush up against and toss them out of the way.

No one touches her. _**Ever.**_

* * *

><p>"<em><strong>YEOW! <strong>__Gottverdammte Scheissekopf!_" – Asuka swore loudly as Ritsuko relocated his wrist. After the little incident in the school, he was intent on going to the school infirmary but was interrupted by Section 2 agents who brought him into NERV's own facility. He didn't mind as it meant he could miss school – Asuka was just another teenager and if an opportunity to be absent from school presented itself, he was jumping for it.

That is, if said opportunity didn't mean as much pain as he was experiencing now.

"I hope that wasn't directed at me." – the woman quipped dryly, reaching for bandages.

"It wasn't." – he growled. – "Seriously, what the hell is her problem? I haven't said anything to her and she just goes and wipes the floor with me?" – He shook his head, wincing at the momentary flare of pain coming from where she was working. – "Jeez, what a bitch…"

"I'd keep it down if I were you. Do you want the Commander to hear you calling her daughter that?"

"I don't care."

"You should." – came the icy voice from the doorway. Both looked up to see none other than Gendo Ikari, flanked by two Section 2 gorillas as always. – "Pilot Soryu, I believe disciplinary actions will be necessary after your harassment of pilot Ikari today."

"What harassment? I was saying, I didn't do _anything_ to her!" – the boy protested, almost hysterical.

"Your ignorance does not amuse me. See that it does not happen again or there will be… consequences." – the man warned before leaving.

Asuka kept staring at the door for more than a minute before deflating with a sigh. – "Alright, I give up. What the hell just happened?"

"It couldn't be helped. You had no way of knowing she's like that." – Ritsuko supplied. She never liked Rei; the animosity started before she even knew about the circumstances surrounding the girl and only intensified afterwards. With Asuka openly earning the Commander's wrath, she guessed she found a comrade.

"What do you mean, like that?"

"You see, Rei has… _problems_ when it comes to unwanted physical contact." – That was true; even Section 2 was instructed to give her room at all times.

"Yeah, I noticed…"

* * *

><p>"And of course he didn't even bother to ask me about this?" – Misato raged into her phone. Until Ritsuko called her, she was doing the least favorite part of her job: paperwork.<p>

"Orders are orders. And you know what he's like with people who don't dance the way he pulls their strings." – the blonde said dryly. They both knew Section 2 monitored the phone call which is why Misato restrained herself from releasing a few choice expletives in Gendo Ikari's general direction after the man just gave her another thing to worry about.

"Yes, yes…" – she affirmed before another thought occurred to her. – "Shit, Shinji isn't gonna like this…"

* * *

><p>Three hours later, said girl was climbing the stairs to the Katsuragi apartment. The rest of her day at school went surprisingly smoothly after that idiot Soryu disappeared somewhere. Shinji didn't know the details, only that he got taken away by black-clothed people after dozens of witnesses saw him getting his ass handed to him by Rei. The blue-haired girl sat the remaining classes with a surprisingly content and calm aura around her.<p>

As far as Shinji was concerned, that was good. She didn't hate Rei; after the initial animosity, Shinji now knew Rei had her own problems. And the reason she remained a pilot instead of taking the easy way out in the first place was Rei: Shinji firmly decided she will look after her own family. Well, after Rei; _that man_ was not entitled to be considered such by her.

Shinji wasn't dumb. In the years before, she searched pretty much anything she could to find any living relatives of hers. It's not as if she didn't like her former guardians (quite the contrary), she just wanted some reassurance she wasn't alone. No such luck.

So without any alternative, Rei seemed to be the only target for any familial feelings.

Even as she walked into the apartment, these feelings were the focus of her mind. That is, until the boxes stacked along the walls got her attention.

'_Huh. Misato didn't tell me she ordered anything from abroad.'_ she thought as her eyes fell on the postal service logo. Shrugging, she walked to her room and slid open the door…

…only to see a certain redheaded boy hunched over the various pieces of female underwear on her bed.

Shinji's eyebrows twitched dangerously.

Asuka didn't even know what hit him before someone grabbed his shirt and roughly yanked him up before giving him a shove that sent him stumbling out of the room and into the corridor's wall.

"You mind telling me what you're doing here?" – the girl growled dangerously as she pinned his chest to the ground with a foot, both hands on her waist.

Asuka, for his part, was cursing the fact that she wasn't wearing a skirt. – "What did it look like? Getting your crap out of my room!"

She raised an eyebrow. – "Oh, really? And just what exactly makes you think that _my_ room is also yours?"

"Commander's orders." – said Misato as she walked onto the scene. – "Long story short, the Commander assigned this apartment as his new living quarters due to 'discipline issues'." – She air-quoted that last part. – "Sorry, Shinji… I didn't have a say in this."

The girl promptly headbutted the nearest wall with just enough force to not hurt. – "This has got to be a joke…"

"It isn't, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, yeah…" – interjected Asuka impatiently. – "Can she get out of here now?"

"Not so fast, mister. Shinji will keep living here too." – the woman pointed out.

"Ah, for crying out loud!" – Shinji protested. – "The Commander can't possibly be this much of a jerk!"

Asuka immediately broke out into snickering at her comment. – "Anyway…" – he breathed as he forced his laugh under control. – "as I was trying to say, I got dibs on the larger room 'cause I'm the better pilot. It's kinda obvious."

"_Damare, kusobaka! [Shut up, stupid shit!]_" – Shinji snapped instantly. – "Don't think you'll just walk in here uninvited and behave like you own the place!"

The boy folded his arms. – "And I'm not gonna be talked down to by a little girl whose mouth is _**way**_ bigger than her chest!"

_**THWACK!**_

"Say that again!" – she challenged, holding her hand ready for another slap.

"Oh, I will!" – he retorted, ignoring the stinging pain in his cheek.

Before things could escalate, Misato stepped in. – "That's enough, you two! Seriously, you're behaving like kids!"

"Uh, Misato? We _are_ kids." – Shinji pointed out dryly.

The woman stood still for a while before sighing. – "…never mind. What I'm saying is, I'm not going to let you two knock this house down on each other so make nice."

The two teens glanced at each other then pointedly looked in opposite directions.

* * *

><p>Later that day, as Shinji was about to shut the bathroom door behind her, she caught a glance of Asuka going for the kitchen. – "Hey." – she called after him.<p>

"What?" – he called back, obviously not paying much attention.

"Just so we're clear… I catch you in my room playing with my underwear again and I'll _**nail your thing to your pants**_." – she warned.

Asuka grinned. – "Then I'll be fine as long as you don't catch me."

"Don't push it, Soryu." – she growled before slamming the door. As an afterthought, she locked it and hung a towel onto the handle to cover the keyhole as well.

Which is why the sound of her showering could obscure a soft curse from outside.


End file.
